(The Federalist)—The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) face a federal civil rights complaint challenging their policies that require students to use facilities like restrooms and locker rooms with students of the opposite sex.
The Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies (DFI) and the Liberty Justice Center (LJC) filed the Title IX complaint with the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday stating that both ISBE and CPS are complying with a state law “forcing students to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations with members of the opposite sex, based solely on self-declared ‘gender identity.’” That law is in conflict with federal law as well as multiple court rulings overturning the Biden administration’s attempt to redefine sex, the complaint says, adding that the Illinois schools either need to comply with the civil rights law or lose federal funding.
“Congress intended Title IX to ensure that schools provide equal educational opportunities without regard to sex, not to erase biological reality and force women and girls into uncomfortable and unsafe situations that violate the very law designed to protect them,” DFI President and Co-Founder Bob Eitel said in a press release. “ISBE and CPS are pushing radical policies that prioritize ideology over student safety and privacy and parental rights. We will not stand by while states and school districts sacrifice civil rights on the altar of gender ideology. We urge the U.S. Department of Education to investigate this matter and, if necessary, move to terminate federal funding until ISBE and CPS comply with the law.”
ISBE’s and CPS’s policies not only force students into intimate, private spaces with the opposite sex but go further to say that students who are uncomfortable with the arrangement must themselves find separate accommodations, which continues the “subordination of sex to ‘gender identity,’” the complaint states.
Moreover, the Illinois schools include parental exclusion policies that disallow school officials from informing parents if their child begins to identify as transgender and letting a child pursue a “social transition” in secret.
“Students shall be permitted to participate in overnight [school] trips in accordance with their gender identity; with other students who share their gender identity; or in a manner that makes them feel safe, affirmed, and included,” the policy states. “Schools shall not notify chaperones or parents of other students about the housing arrangements for a transgender, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming student.”
As The Federalist reported, “social transitions,” which include the kind of facilities usage mandated in Illinois, as well as the use of “preferred pronouns” and names, are extremely damaging to the mental health of students who claim to be transgender and are a major factor in pushing them to seek dangerous, irreversible medical interventions like genital mutilation and chemical castration.
Anticipating changes from the incoming Trump administration, CPS Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez and Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova issued a Jan. 10 letter doubling down on the district’s gender ideology policies. A webpage called “Updated Guidance and Resources for Families Regarding New Presidential Administration” says that CPS responses to the federal policy changes will “continue to evolve.” But the complaint notes that the district “does not appear to be evolving fast enough,” given that its policies have been explicitly blocked at the federal level since January.
“The Illinois State Board of Education and Chicago Public Schools are violating parents’ right to raise their children by hiding important information about their children’s activities at school,” LJC President Jacob Huebert said. “They’re also violating federal law by forcing women and girls to share facilities with the opposite sex.”