WASHINGTON (Covering Katy News)—The debate over handling gender identity issues at Katy ISD is the most significant disagreement in this year's school board race. On Friday, President Joe Biden ensured the debate would continue long after the May 5 election. His move also means the winners of this election will guide the school board's decision on whether Katy ISD challenges the Biden Administration or concedes to its new rules.
On Friday, President Biden issued a document revealing its new interpretation of Title IX, a 1972 law that bars sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. The document is 1,577 pages.
“The new rule clarifies that the sex discrimination protected under Title IX includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and extends new protections to students and employees who are pregnant or parenting," Inside Higher Ed reported.
Republicans call it a "stunning affront to the purpose of Title IX."
LGBTQ and gender equality advocates support Biden and want him to go further.
"Once the final rules come out, you'll see litigation from multiple states, beginning with Texas." Houston attorney Chris Tritico told Covering Katy News.
Tritico is the general counsel for four Houston area teachers' unions representing about 11,000 teachers.
Last August, on a slim 4-to-3 vote, the Katy school board passed a policy that addressed how the school district handles gender fluidity matters. The Biden administration's new interpretation of Title IX is expected to conflict with some or all of Katy ISD's policy, which does the following:
- Makes district restrooms, locker rooms, showers, and similar changing facilities specific to a person's gender at birth
- Requires players on girls' teams to have been born female
- Requires players on boys' teams to have been born male
- Requires district staff to notify parents if their child requests to be identified as transgendered, change his or her name, or use different pronouns at school, except where prohibited by law or in cases of suspected parental abuse
- Excludes gender fluidity content from the classroom and instructional material
The two incumbents in this school board race, Rebecca Fox and Dawn Champagne, voted against the district's new gender policy. They've dismissed the policy as not needed.
"They [students] don't compete in each other's athletics; they don't go to bathrooms that are putting other students in danger," Fox said during the board's debate last August. "My concern is this is a solution looking for a problem."
Now, the Biden Administration appears to support biological males using female restrooms and locker rooms. Page 1,284 of the document released on Friday says this:
“When it (school district policy) denies a transgender student access to a sex-separate facility or activity consistent with that student’s gender identity, this would violate Title IX’s general nondiscrimination mandate.”
The new interpretation of Title IX does not directly address transgender athletes in sports. However, according to several media sources, including Inside Higher Ed, the administration is planning more changes to its interpretation of transgender students in athletics after the presidential election.
"The process for the athletics rules is ongoing," a senior administration official said.
The two challengers in the Katy ISD school board race, Donovan Campbell and David Olson, support the Katy ISD's new gender policy and promise to fight the Biden administration's new interpretation of Title IX.
"We are willing to stand in their way," a joint campaign statement said. "Stand up with us for young women against the Biden Title IX policies."
Bathrooms, locker rooms and sports get the headlines, but attorney Tritico, who has yet to review the whole document, is concerned that the new Biden interpretation of Title IX removes due process protections for students accused of crimes like sexual assault. He says accused students won't have an opportunity for a fair trial.
"We have to include due process in these systems—that's the very reason the 14th Amendment was written, Tritico said. "She said it; it must be true. Kick him out of school is not a fair system.”
The new way of treating the accused is drastically changing. Rules designed to protect an accused student from being tried unjustly are being removed by the Biden Administration which will allow a single person to investigate and determine the fate of the accused.
“Currently, institutions are barred from using the so-called single investigator model in which one person investigates, adjudicates, and issues any sanctions against those accused of sexual misconduct. They’re also required to allow advisers to cross-examine the complaining and responding parties along with any witnesses during a live hearing. Ending the single-investigator model and requiring cross-examination were key changes in the 2020 rules aimed at ensuring those accused of misconduct have due process rights,” Inside Higher Ed reported.
Tritico says the protection an accused student has, often depends on who is in the White House at the time of an investigation.
“There was minimal due process and then the Obama administration just gutted it,” Tritico said. The Trump administration restored due process and now Biden is gutting it again.”
The new policy will also allow educational institutions like Katy ISD to investigate events that happened off campus which is not currently allowed.
The new rules are set to take August 1 and will apply to complaints that occurred on or after that date.
Early voting begins Monday, April 22, 2024 and ends on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. A special Saturday early voting will be held on Saturday, April 27, 2024. Election Day is May 4, 2024.
Katy ISD