Jefferson County, Denver District Sued for Gender Identity-Based Policy

A Colorado family is suing Jefferson County Public School for an issue with overnight field trip accommodations and trans students.

Back in the summer of 2023, the Wailes family’s daughter was on a field trip with her school to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. On this trip, she was rooming with three other students in a two-bed hotel room. One of the other students, and the one who happened to be her bedmate, was a trans female student. Upon learning this, she notified her mother—who was a chaperone on this trip—and got her room switched. Staff of the school allegedly told her to not share the reason behind why she switched rooms with anyone else. Legal action has been in progress since the event. Now, the Wailes family is initiating a lawsuit. With the help of conservative and Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Jefferson County is under fire for a policy that is being seen as uncomfortable and safe. 

The lawsuit states that the Jefferson County school district was essentially hiding this information from the parents. The district has a policy that students who need overnight boarding will be given roommates based on the student’s gender as opposed to biological sex. With this, when the daughter was allowed to change rooms, they allegedly urged her to not share with others that the trans student was the reason for switching. The Wailes family saw this as a violation of their daughter’s privacy and of their rights as a parent to make informed choices about these situations. It also came across as the school being untruthful. Though the Wailes family feels tricked by this, the policy is intended to protect trans students and support them. Representatives of the district shared with a local news outlet that they  “follow all Colorado state laws when it comes to how (they) treat students, staff and families.” This policy is now being scrutinized, at the detriment of trans students, due to perceived harm and deceit of others.

Regardless of how one personally views the situation and the policy, this lawsuit will be a defining one for how schools handle trans students in unique situations. Is this policy a privacy violation to cisgender students? Would the absence of it be a privacy violation to transgender students? Protection of trans people has suffered at the hands of the current administration, both federally and locally. What matters more to those involved in this case—cis comfort or trans safety? The past two years of legal steps being taken are now culminating into a lawsuit that could affect how trans students are treated from now on, for better or for worse. 

Photo courtesy of the press release