Quinn Clark
LGBTQ+ advocacy groups Fair Wisconsin and GSAFE filed a federal civil rights complaint against the Muskego-Norway School District Tuesday, claiming it violated federal law by removing gender identity from its anti-discrimination policy last month.
According to the groups' press release, complaints were filed with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights against Muskego-Norway, as well as the Winneconne Community School District, the School District of Abbotsford, and Hartford Union High School District.
These districts' school boards have fostered a "hostile environment" by eliminating or excluding gender identity from their anti-discrimination policies, which is in violation of the federal civil rights law Title IX, said Abigail Swetz, executive director of Fair Wisconsin.
“That is an unconscionable action for duly elected leaders entrusted with the education and safety of our children to take, and we are here to say it is beyond unacceptable – it is discriminatory," Swetz said in the release.
The new complaints come after GSAFE and Fair Wisconsin filed a similar one against the Kettle Moraine School District in September, also alleging Title IX violations.
The Muskego-Norway School District did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction states that creating a safe environment for LGBTQ+ students is essential for their educational success. Research also suggests that laws targeting transgender people were correlated with increased suicide attempts among transgender and non-binary youth.
Muskego parent Ann Zielke regularly advocates for LGBTQ+ students at school board meetings. She said she was disturbed by the board's vote to eliminate gender identity from its anti-discrimination policy last month.
There was no discussion regarding the decision to alter the policy at the school board meeting, and district officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Zielke wishes the school board would focus on supporting Muskego's dedicated educators.
"Why go down this road?" she said.
Zielke said the school board has unnecessarily focused on "politically motivated culture wars" over the past couple of years.
For example, the board proposed its "pronoun policy" in 2022, which requires written permission from a parent or legal guardian before using a student's preferred name and pronouns.
The policy passed last year despite students and parents' concerns that it would endanger transgender students by outing them to potentially unsupportive homes.
"These brave kids simply asked for our community and our board to see their humanity," Zielke said of the multiple students who spoke out against the pronoun policy.
Zielke is also worried about the legal and fiscal ramifications for the district.
"The truth is that discrimination that denies any students of an opportunity puts the rights of all students at risk," she said.
Based on court rulings, Title IX has protected trans students since 2017
Signed into law in 1972, Title IX bans discrimination against students and staff in federally funded education programs on the basis of sex. The law was updated by the Biden administration this year to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
The self-described parental rights group Moms for Liberty sued over the updated Title IX regulations earlier this year, claiming that including gender identity would unconstitutionally alter the definition of sex. This resulted in a temporary injunction that blocks the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing the new rules in schools that enroll children of Moms for Liberty members.
Regardless, Wisconsin school districts are still required to include transgender students in Title IX protections, according to legal experts.
That's because the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, has upheld in past rulings that Title IX applies to gender identity, even before the Biden administration's updated rules.
For example, a transgender student sued the Kenosha Unified School District after it banned him from using the boys' restrooms. The court decided in his favor in 2017, ruling that Title IX protects transgender students from discrimination.
While the lawsuit over Biden's new Title IX rules plays out, the U.S. Department of Education is temporarily blocked from enforcing Title IX in certain schools. However, GSAFE and Fair Wisconsin's press release said its complaints are against "school districts, as separate entities."
"The actions by these school boards are fostering hostile environments at the district level," the release said.
The advocacy groups' release said they plan to file more complaints. They're encouraging people to report unsafe learning environments for transgender and nonbinary students by contacting testimony@fairwisconsin.com or 608-441-0143.
Quinn Clark is a Public Investigator reporter. She can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Quinn_A_Clark.
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