Alamance-Burlington school board members are scheduled to vote on a Title IX policy that rescinds expanded federal protections for LGBTQ students implemented under President Joe Biden to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and “sex stereotypes.”
A revised Title IX policy, presented to school board members during their latest work session, deletes all references to “sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, and gender identity” that had been added to comply with rules issued by the U.S. Department of Education that took effect on August 1, 2024.
A chief judge for U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Danny Reeves, vacated the Biden-era changes to Title IX nationwide earlier this year.
Reeves concluded that the U.S. Department of Education had overstepped its authority in redefining sexual discrimination, writing that since its inception in 1972, Title IX had always been intended to guarantee female students the same educational and athletic opportunities as male students in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.
“We’ve had a number of discussions about Title IX,” school board attorney Adam Mitchell of the Tharrington Smith law firm recalled during the school board’s work session last week. “This is simply responding to the court’s decision that invalidated the 2024 regulations.”
As a result, ABSS will need to revert to an earlier policy, based on Title IX rules implemented in 2020 that stemmed from a ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, Mitchell explained.
The federal appeals court ruled in August 2020 that the Gloucester County, Virginia school board had violated the constitutional rights of plaintiff Gavin Grimm, a transgender student and biological female, under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by prohibiting Grimm from using the boy’s bathroom at school.
Mitchell said last week that any future complaints about potential Title IX violations in ABSS would also continue to be governed by North Carolina’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, a law enacted by the General Assembly in 2023 top prohibit transgender student athletes from competing in K-12 or collegiate sports that correspond with their gender identity.
A “Dear Colleague” letter from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within the federal Department of Education issued on February 4 cited an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 20, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” That order directs all federal agencies to “enforce all sex-protective laws to promote the reality that there are two sexes, male and female,” the OCR notes in its letter.
School board members neither commented on nor voted to adopt the changes to the Title IX policy presented last week.
School board vice chairman Dan Ingle subsequently confirmed for The Alamance News that the revised Title IX policy will be presented for a vote either later this month or in early May.
Board voted 6-1 to adopt policy with expanded protections for LGBTQ students in August 2024
School board members had voted 6-1, with then-board member Ryan Bowden opposed, to adopt the revised Title IX policy with additional protections for LGBTQ students on August 13, 2024. School officials said at the time that ABSS could lose federal funding unless the Title IX policy was revised to reflect the additional protections for LGBTQ students implemented under Biden.
Some K-12 schools, colleges, and universities in North Carolina and across the U.S. had been temporarily exempted last year from following the new Title IX rules as a result of a federal suit filed in Kansas by the Young America’s Foundation, Female Athletes United, and Moms for Liberty.
One ABSS school, E.M. Holt Elementary, had been on the list of exempt schools and colleges, based on a November 12, 2024 federal court filing. Burlington Christian Academy and Alamance Community College were also exempt from enforcement of the new Title IX rules, based on earlier federal court filings.
Mitchell told the board at the time, “The court decided, in certain schools, if they have children of members of those groups [who filed the suit], they would be subject to the injunction…They have kids who are members of the nonprofits groups that are part of that lawsuit. It mainly applies to Kansas and other school districts in that region.”
Two weeks later after the school board voted to adopt the revised Title IX policy, about half of the nine community members spoke during the public comments period at an August 26, 2024 board meeting said they supported the additional protections for LGBTQ students.
