Trump Admin Steps In After Female Students Raise Alarm Over School’s Trans Policy

A North Carolina school district faces a Trump administration investigation after high school girls accused school officials of doing nothing after they complained about a transgender-identifying male invading their personal spaces. 

The Department of Education told Cabarrus County Schools on Monday that it had opened a Title IX investigation over complaints that biological male students had been allowed to access girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. Students in the district for months have lambasted school officials for not keeping the spaces separated by sex. 

“The Complainants alleged that the District permits male students to access sex-segregated restrooms and locker rooms for female students and has failed to respond as required to reports of female students being sexually harassed by male students in school restrooms or locker rooms,” the Education Department wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Wire. 

Trista Ruck, a student at Cox Mill High School, said that school officials dismissed her concerns about feeling uncomfortable with a male using the women’s bathroom. She said the principal told students the issue was “too political to address.”

“Our school is supposed to make every student safe, but we get ostracized when we discuss this with adults who are supposed to ensure the safety and comfortability at school,” she said in April. “Personally, I try to avoid the restrooms at all costs, but I do use these facilities at times when I really have to.”

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights will probe whether the district’s policies discriminate based on sex by denying female students access to private intimate spaces. 

To comply with the investigation, the department asked the district to provide documents on its policies related to “gender identity” and any complaints it received from girls about males in their spaces. 

School officials downplayed concerns from parents and students and previously said it is constrained by laws, stating that “schools may not discriminate against students by denying them access to the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity.”

The Education Department investigation comes after Rep. Addison McDowell (R-NC) wrote a letter on May 7 urging action against the district. 

“If my daughters were speaking up, I would want leaders in the community to act. It took a lot of courage for these girls to stand up and speak out,” McDowell told The Daily Wire. “There appears to have been confusion at the local level about how Title IX protections apply to girls in our schools. I look forward to the Department providing clarity and restoring common sense.”

The Trump administration said the investigation was part of its efforts to recognize June as “Title IX Month.” 

“Today’s investigation demonstrates that the Trump Administration will not stop pursuing Districts that reportedly subject our women and girls to egregious violations of their privacy and safety,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey. “Under the Trump Administration, no woman or girl will have to fight alone to secure her basic protections, and we will not relent until Title IX is restored to the fullest extent of the law.”