The U.S. Department of Education launched a “directed investigation” March 5 into a western Wisconsin school district for allegedly allowing a transgender student to use a bathroom that aligns with their gender identity.
In a statement, the federal education department said its Office for Civil Rights will determine whether the New Richmond School District violated Title IX “by allowing students to access intimate facilities based on ‘gender identity,’ not biological sex.” Title IX is a federal civil rights law that bans sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs.
The federal education department cited a January school board meeting in which some parents and students said they were concerned about girls needing to share bathrooms and locker rooms with transgender students at New Richmond High School.
“The Trump Administration will always stand up for students and enforce Title IX to ensure that women and girls are safe when they are at school,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said. “Young women should never be forced to share intimate spaces with boys and men because school leaders care more about radical gender ideology than protecting girls’ safety, dignity, and privacy.”
The situation has stirred controversy in New Richmond, a community of about 11,000 residents located roughly 35 miles east of the Twin Cities. At a Feb. 10 school board meeting streamed by the conservative group Wisconsin Moms for Liberty, parent Jessica Turner said staff told her daughter to use a single-stall restroom after she shared her anxiety and fear of “using the girl’s bathroom with a boy in there.”
Other students said they supported the school’s restroom policy. One student said the school’s queer and transgender students have felt “more isolated and targeted than ever, with hate spreading across social media and school grounds.”
“While fear around violence in bathrooms is totally valid, potential worries about what could happen in the bathroom are misplaced,” another student said. “Trans people are not scary. They are our community members, and in this case, a child who like anyone else just wants to use the bathroom.”
In February, the school board in a 2-7 vote rejected a proposed policy that would require the district to separate its bathrooms and locker rooms based on biological sex, according to the Department of Education.
In an informational presentation to the board Feb. 10, Michael Waldspurger, the district’s attorney, said recent court decisions have ruled in favor of allowing transgender students to select a restroom or locker room based on their gender identity. He said the district could face legal action and would likely lose a lawsuit if it were to deny transgender students of the right to use their preferred bathrooms.
The New Richmond incident follows a Title IX investigation launched in 2023 into the Sun Prairie School District over allegations an 18-year-old student undressed in front of students in the girls’ locker room. That investigation is still pending, according to Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the conservative law firm that filed the Title IX complaint.
In 2024, President Joe Biden revised the 1972 Title IX law to strengthen protections for LGBTQ students. He expanded the criteria for sex-based discrimination to include gender identity. Last year, a federal judge struck down the policy, ruling it unconstitutional.
The move reverted the federal law to regulations made during President Donald Trump’s administration in 2020. In an executive order last year, Trump said the government would recognize “two sexes, male and female” and Title IX would not include gender identity.
The Department of Education’s investigation into New Richmond comes amid a wider effort by the Trump administration to restrict transgender rights. Last year, the federal education department launched investigations into five school districts in northern Virginia, finding they violated Title IX by allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
The agency required the districts to rescind the policies or risk “imminent enforcement action.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has also made restrictions on transgender youth a focus in his campaign for Wisconsin governor. In a Feb. 3 statement, he called on the New Richmond School District to reverse its bathroom policy.
In response to the Department of Education’s investigation, Tiffany said on X, “As governor, I will protect girls’ spaces and put an end to this nonsense.”
The New Richmond School District and its school board did not respond to requests for comment from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Kayla Huynh covers K-12 education, teachers and solutions for the Journal Sentinel. Contact: khuynh@gannett.com. Follow her on X: @_kaylahuynh.
Kayla’s reporting is supported by Herb Kohl Philanthropies and reader contributions to the Journal Sentinel Community-Funded Journalism Project. Journal Sentinel editors maintain full editorial control over all content. To support this work, visit jsonline.com/support. Checks can be addressed to Local Media Foundation (memo: “JS Community Journalism”) and mailed to P.O. Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689.
The JS Community-Funded Journalism Project is administered by Local Media Foundation, tax ID #36-4427750, a Section 501(c)(3) charitable trust affiliated with Local Media Association.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Feds investigate Wisconsin school district over transgender bathroom use
Reporting by Kayla Huynh, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
