Intransigent: Watchdog Files Title IX Complaints Against Two Ohio Schools

The complaints are based on undercover recordings of officials talking about getting around bans on men in women’s sports.

Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) today announced it has filed complaints with the U.S. Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services requesting investigations into two schools in Ohio for violations of Title IX. In both cases, undercover journalists from the non-profit Accuracy in Media filmed school officials discussing how to circumvent the law to allow biological males to compete with girls.

Ohio law bans boys from participating in girls’ sports. At the federal level, Title IX allows the Department of Education to withhold federal funding from an institution that discriminates against or denies the benefits of any student program or activity on the basis of sex. A biological boy on the roster of a girls’ team is clearly denying an opportunity to a female athlete, and that boy’s presence in a girls’ restroom or locker room can constitute sexual harassment. President Trump’s Executive Order 14201 states, “it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”

At Reading High School, a counselor was caught on camera coaching a prospective parent on how to have a biological boy participate in girls’ sports and “absolutely” gain access to girls’ locker and rest rooms. “As long as, you know, the name that’s on your birth certificate is the name that you put in the system,” she advised, “and you fill out everything in the system that matches the birth certificate, again, how are you going to prove it?”

In the other instance, a Princeton City Schools assistant athletic director told the undercover reporter how the school may continue to allow boys to play in girls’ sports, regardless of state and federal law.

“Unfortunately, these instances are emblematic of the support for these destructive and discriminatory policies that permeates the education system,” said PPT Director Michael Chamberlain. “One thing I learned while working at the U.S. Department of Education is that, among the education establishment, groupthink and a tendency to follow fads is strong, even in geographic areas where most people would not expect it. That’s why it’s important to educate the public about such incidents.”

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