Federal Order On All-Gender Bathrooms Meets Pushback From DPS

By Heather Willard | KDVR Fox 31

DENVER (KDVR) — In late August, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights told Denver Public Schools that it violated Title IX protections when it created an all-gender bathroom.

Now, the district is asking for a 90-day negotiation period to resolve the allegations.

The results of the OCR’s investigation were received by the district on Aug. 28. On Aug. 21, the district announced it had converted a second bathroom to become all-gender.

The day after receiving the results, Denver Public School officials issued a statement, pushing back against the Office of Civil Rights’ determination.

“At Denver Public Schools, we take pride in leading for Equity at every level of the organization. To our LGBTQ+ students, families, and supporters, we see you, and we will not stand for these attempts at your erasure,” Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero said in a statement from the district. “We will protect all of our students from this hostile administration while we continue to raise the bar on achievement.”

District says communication with OCR has been limited

On Sunday, Denver Public Schools sent a letter to OCR requesting a 90-day resolution negotiation period. In the letter, DPS said it has “expressed its desire to discuss resolution and understand specifically what OCR believes would remedy the alleged violation,” but that communication with OCR has been extremely limited because of the federal agency’s “unwillingness to engage on this matter.”

The district said there were three instances where it was in contact with OCR and attempted to learn why the bathroom at issue would constitute a Title IX violation, via phone and letter. The district alleged that throughout, it was not given a specific course of action that OCR would believe to have remedied its allegation.

In its letter to OCR on Sunday, the district said that the OCR letter of findings received in August said that, in its investigation of Denver Public Schools, “Through its misguided effort, the District ended its different treatment of female students, but it did not remedy its Title IX violation.”

The district said its efforts were not guided because it did not have meaningful communication with OCR, but said that OCR’s letter, “concedes that to the extent OCR believed the existence of the first multi-stall all-gender bathroom constituted different treatment in violation of Title IX, the completion of the second bathroom remedied the allegation.”

District: August letter claims hostile environment resolved

The district said that the August letter has a new claim that Denver Public Schools created a hostile environment and thereby violated Title IX. The district said this allegation has not been discussed and raises a number of questions.

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