Wisconsin school districts face new discrimination complaints

Two Wisconsin LGBTQ+ advocacy groups filed federal civil rights complaints against several school districts in the state in October, accusing them of failing to comply with anti-discrimination protections.

Fair Wisconsin and GSAFE announced on Oct. 9 that they had filed the complaints with the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of transgender and nonbinary students in the Winneconne Community School District, Muskego-Norway Schools, the School District of Abbotsford, and the Hartford Union High School District.

The school boards of each of these districts have taken votes to eliminate or exclude gender identity from their policies detailing Title IX anti-discrimination protections, Fair Wisconsin executive director Abigail Swetz said in a press release.

Fair Wisconsin is an LGBTQ+ civil rights and political advocacy organization, while GSAFE is an LGBTQ+ education advocacy organization. The groups filed their four complaints in coordination with GLSEN, a national advocacy organization working for LGBTQ+ rights in K-12 schools.

New Title IX rules issued by President Joe Biden’s administration that went into effect on Aug. 1 make clear that discrimination on the basis of gender identity is now covered by the existing federal prohibition on sex-based discrimination in publicly funded education.

The four complaints filed by Fair Wisconsin and GSAFE accuse the school districts in question of failing to comply with those new rules. The complaints come a month after the organizations filed a similar complaint against the Kettle Moraine School District.

When they announced the Kettle Moraine complaint, Fair Wisconsin and GSAFE encouraged Wisconsinites to tell them about any additional school districts that are out of compliance with federal Title IX regulations. Swetz said more complaints could come from those reports.

“We did start receiving tips, and so it was sort of a combination of being alerted through the media, also alerted through community actions, and also just sort of knowing where to pay attention,” Swetz told the Wisconsin Independent in an interview.

Some of the districts named in the four new complaints cited an injunction in a lawsuit filed by Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United that blocked enforcement of the Title IX rules, the same justification Kettle Moraine used. That injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge John Broomes in Kansas, blocked specific schools from enforcing the rules.

But in the complaints, Fair Wisconsin and GSAFE argue that the districts have a responsibility to comply with federal regulations despite the injunction. The Winneconne Community School District complaint says: “Although all three schools in the District are, as of September 13, included in the list of declarants in the District of Kansas case and thus subject to the injunction, the injunction does not extend to school districts in their entirety. Since school districts are legally separate entities that still receive federal financial assistance and their actions shape the learning environment of schools, the District is still required to adhere to the updated federal regulations.”

In each of the cases detailed in the complaints, the school districts knowingly failed to comply with federal regulations, Fair Wisconsin and GSAFE say.

“There is no opt-out for federal law, so if there is a law, there is that obligation to follow that law whether or not you have a policy in place. If you don’t adopt a policy, you certainly will be out of compliance,” an attorney for the School District of Abbotsford told its governing board during an August meeting in which members voted 4-3 to rescind previously adopted nondiscrimination protections for transgender students, according to the complaint filing.

In an email, Hartford Union High School District Superintendent Jeff Walters confirmed the district had received communication from Fair Wisconsin and GSAFE about the complaint but said it had not been contacted by the Department of Education as of Oct. 24. Walters said the district “strongly believes in our practices, procedures, and policies that support all students.”

School District of Abbotsford administrator Ryan Bargender said the district wouldn’t comment on the complaint against it until it could review it with legal counsel.

Winneconne Community School District and Muskego-Norway Schools did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

Brian Juchems, the senior director of education and training for GSAFE, told the Wisconsin Independent that despite the air of fear and backlash against protections for transgender and nonbinary students in schools, the federal regulations are about keeping children safe.

“This is education professionals, people who every day are working to create schools where everybody can be available for learning,” Juchems said. “So these regulations came from that. They weren’t created out of the sky.”

Swetz said that Fair Wisconsin and GSAFE plan to continue filing federal complaints as needed.

“We are continuing to get tips, and we are continuing to monitor other school districts,” she said. “There’s over 420 school districts in Wisconsin, so there’s a lot of ground to cover, although I will say there are also school districts doing the right thing, and we want to make sure we’re lifting those school districts up as well.”

Swetz cautioned that resolving the complaints could take a long time. But, she said, there is an easy way for school districts to resolve the complaints themselves.

“There is a quick fix available, and that is on the school board side of things,” Swetz said. “School boards could absolutely take another vote to be in compliance with federal law and add gender identity back into their policies about Title IX. And we invite them to take that vote. They could fix it with one vote. Next meeting, let’s go. Put it on the agenda.”