Monroe Public Schools adopts new policy banning transgender females from girls sports
The Monroe Public Schools board moved forward with updating its girls athletic participation policy after a parent claimed the district violated Title IX protections when it hosted Ann Arbor Skyline, which had an alleged transgender athlete on the team.
The updated policy, which passed 5-2 on Tuesday, only allows biological female students to play girls sports and use girls locker rooms. A federal lawsuit against the district aims to prevent MPS from reversing that policy and to award damages to one of its families.
"Just because they changed the policy last night doesn't mean they can't change the policy again. So, we want to make sure there's a court that looks at that and says you can't do this anymore," said Thomas More Law Center attorney Richard Thompson.
Sean Lechner filed his federal lawsuit against the district earlier last week, claiming school officials failed to tell families that a transgender female athlete would be competing against his daughter's varsity volleyball team last year. An independent investigation found no Title IX violations back in April, but Lechner's attorney says the investigation was flawed.
"It was a report that was predestined to find unsubstantiated. This law firm that they used was a friendly law firm. They knew what the results were going to be," Thompson said.
Monroe Public Schools Superintendent Andrew Shaw says that while they've yet to be served with the lawsuit, he said in part, "We remain steadfast in our commitment to adhering to all state and federal guidelines and laws while upholding student safety."
While Thompson says he feels the school board did the right thing by changing its policy, the ACLU says it violates Michigan's civil rights laws.
"Our state civil rights laws explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression in education. We believe that such a policy is in violation of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act," said Jay Kaplan, attorney for the ACLU Michigan LGBTQ+ project.
Even though a Trump administration executive order supports the district's new policy, Kaplan says it doesn't have the power to supersede Michigan's civil rights laws.
