Monroe Public Schools considers restricting girls sports to biological women

The debate over transgender women in high school sports took center stage during Tuesday night's Monroe Public Schools Board of Education meeting.

School board members discussed a potential new policy that would ban transgender women from women's sports and locker rooms.

There was plenty of back-and-forth conversation between board members on the Monroe Public Schools Board revolving around a new policy that would limit only biological females to women's sports and their locker rooms.

"If we are talking about inclusivity, I don't see how this is inclusive," said board secretary Mary Vincent.

Vincent says this potential new policy discriminates against transgender students. However, others on the board disagreed.

"The intent is to protect the women in women sports and that it is a fair environment for them," said board president Tom Heck.

This policy follows the district's involvement in a Title IX complaint filed in December 2025.

The circumstances that led to the Title IX complaint involve a transgender student from another school competing in a girls volleyball match and tournament at Monroe High School. A formal complaint was later sent to Monroe Public Schools, the Michigan High School Athletic Association, the state and the U.S. Department of Education.   

The complaint claimed that parents in Monroe were not notified ahead of time about the transgender student-athlete from an Ann Arbor school, saying some school administrators knew before the contest but did not notify parents. The complaint also claimed that during one of the matches at Monroe, the students from both teams shared a locker room, which constitutes "a violation of privacy and bodily integrity protections under Title IX."  

In April, an independent investigator found claims of Title IX violations against Monroe Public Schools to be unsubstantiated. 

At that time, the school district made a decision to no longer allow "shared locker rooms with opposing teams." 

While Heck on Tuesday said some women can play in men's sports like baseball and football, he encouraged students who don't have a place to join co-ed teams in the community.

The policy says the decision on whether a student can play in a female sport or not will be based on their original birth certificate.

But Vincent questioned who would be in charge of enforcing this rule.

"There are states that allow changes on birth certificates. How are we going to follow that?" Vincent asked.

"Whatever birth certificate is in the hands of Monroe Public Schools will be followed," said Monroe Public Schools Superintendent Andrew Shaw.

As Vincent continued to push the board to develop an inclusive opportunity for transgender students, a board member moved to shut down the discussion.

Only two out of the seven board members voted to keep the conversation going, but the majority voted to move on and leave the issue unresolved for now.

This policy will be discussed at the next board meeting on Oct. 13, but it could be postponed if the board decides it needs more time to discuss it.