(Will County Gazette)—Steve Balich, Homer Township Supervisor and Will County Board member, expressed his strong opposition to the current interpretation of Title IX and its implications on school policies following an incident at Shepard Middle School in which girls were forced to change in front of a male student in the locker room.
Balich’s comments come after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has launched investigations into the Illinois Department of Education, Chicago Public Schools District 299 and Deerfield Public Schools District 109 over the alleged Title IX violations.
The investigations focus on complaints that girls were pressured to share locker rooms with a male student due to his gender identity, despite their objections, potentially violating Title IX’s prohibition on sex-based discrimination in education.
Balich argues that this policy, along with other aspects of “woke” and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandates, has created harmful consequences in schools.
“It was made very clear by the mandate Trump received from the American people that we as a country want all woke and DEI eliminated,” Balich told the Will County Gazette. “This includes liberal interpretation of Title IX.”
Balich’s comments reflect growing frustration among some conservative leaders and parents regarding the evolving application of Title IX, which originally aimed to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs and activities.
The law has recently been interpreted to allow transgender students to use facilities that align with their gender identity.
“Students should never need to share locker rooms or bathrooms with the opposite sex again,” Balich said. “The student that feels uncomfortable is never mentioned as important. A male student claiming to be a woman looking at women in a locker room as he is changing is one of the insane concepts we get from title 9. Men in girls sports is another. It is disrespect at the highest level and I thank God Trump and Company is stopping it.”
Balich’s comments come amid the controversy in Deerfield, where a parent, Nicole Georgas, publicly addressed the issue during a District 109 School Board meeting on March 13.
Georgas recounted how her 13-year-old daughter and other female students at Shepard Middle School were allegedly pressured by school administrators to change in front of a transgender student in the school’s locker room.
Georgas detailed that administrators, including Joanna Ford, Cathy Van Treese and Ginger Logemann, then reprimanded the girls after they expressed discomfort with the situation. The pressure continued throughout the week, and administrators reportedly forced the girls to change into their gym uniforms in front of the male student.
Uncomfortable with the idea of her daughter undressing in front of a male student, Georgas filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice. She raised serious concerns about the violation of privacy and safety for female students, calling for separate facilities for biological males and females in schools.
“The administrators that try to force a woman student to undress in front of a man should be arrested and tried for the mental injury the young girls are being forced to experience because of the liberal nature of most schools,” Balich said.
However, School Principal Rob Wegley has defended the district’s policy, asserting that any male student identifying as female has the right to use girls’ facilities, a position backed by the district’s legal counsel.
Balcih called for the potential termination of federal funding for the districts involved if they fail to comply with Title IX.
“The Federal government must stop all funding of any school that refuses to get rid of anything related to Title IX,” Balich said. “School Boards should vote to make any administrator or teacher who feels obligated to practice the asinine mandates of title 9 face a hearing for immediate dismissal. The schools are not at a proficiency level they can even call close to ok, yet they want more money for bad to even worse results and can’t understand that Title 9 is just one of the reasons education is only getting worse and at a higher cost.”
The federal investigations investigations into the Illinois Department of Education, Chicago Public Schools District 299 and Deerfield Public Schools District 109 were prompted by complaints from groups such as the Defense of Freedom Institute and the Liberty Justice Center, which allege that these entities allowed female students to be required to share locker rooms with male students, potentially violating Title IX.
In response to the investigation, Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, emphasized the importance of maintaining separate intimate facilities for males and females to protect privacy, safety, and dignity, especially for young girls.
“The architects of Title IX understood that males and females, especially minors, have a right to be free from compelled exposure of their bodies or from engaging in intimate activities—like changing their clothes in a locker room—in front of the opposite sex,” Trainor said in a press release.
Robert Eitel, President of the Defense of Freedom Institute, also condemned the reported bullying of students who objected to sharing facilities with a male and called for action.
“It is shocking that school administrators would allegedly harass and bully a student for objecting to sharing intimate facilities with members of the opposite sex,” Eitel said in a press release.