Title IX Should Alarm Parents of School-age Children

From: Independent Women's Network

 

By Gretchen Garrity

There has been a lot of media noise about the new Title IX regulations put in place by the Biden-Harris administration. The new regulations, passed in April 2024 and implemented on August 1, 2024 redefine “sex.” No longer does “sex” mean one’s biological reality—male or female—but now can be as vaporous as gender identity, of which the making of new gender identities there is no end.

Title IX was originally implemented to ensure that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

It protected women from being discriminated against in sports—which is how most people understand Title IX. However, it has always included any education activity or program that receives federal dollars. And there’s the rub. Title IX has been expanded dramatically. 

 In this article “Biden’s Title IX Rule Guarantees Discrimination, Censorship, And The End Of Parents’ Rights,” Ginny Gentles, director of the Education Freedom Center at the Independent Women’s Forum, exposes just what can and will happen as the new Title IX regulations are implemented. She writes, “When Biden’s Title IX rule takes effect on Aug. 1, using the “wrong” (e.g., biologically accurate) pronouns will be considered “sex-based harassment” and a federal civil rights violation worthy of investigation and discipline.”

Further, she states, “Under the new Title IX regime, school districts likely will assume that policies that hide emotionally vulnerable children’s gender confusion from parents, already in place in thousands of schools around the country, are now federally required. Under these parental-exclusion policies, when a child decides to embrace a new name, identity, and set of pronouns, school staff swiftly craft “gender support plans” that codify the child’s new identity and determine the bathrooms, locker rooms, and sleeping arrangements for overnight trips the child will use. The child determines if school staff should actively hide the new name and identity from the parents, uniting the entire school community against the parents...”

Not only will students and school staff be under the gun if they happen to “misgender” a student, but the new rules assert their requirements can “override any conflicting FERPA provisions.” This means that parents will no longer have the right to have access to their children’s education records if Title IX is invoked for their child.

INJUNCTIONS IN PLACE

The radical nature of the new Title IX requirements prompted numerous states and groups to file suit against the Biden-Harris administration. Injunctions against the new rules have been in place in 26 states thus far. See the map above (link to interactive map HERE). Missouri is included, so the new Title IX rules have not been implemented, unless your local school district has seen fit to do so. Parents and staff have a right to insist the new rule is NOT implemented until and if the legal battle is resolved.

Additionally, it is vitally important that parents be in touch with their school boards to let them know that implementation of the new Title IX rules is unacceptable. 

OZARK SCHOOL DISTRICT

Christina Tonsing, a member of the Ozark School Board, has been closely watching the battle over Title IX and its implementation. Wanting to get ahead of the ramifications, she has lately been active in working with the board members and administration to address the issue.

Tonsing has written an article published on her website that lets the public know what is happening with the Ozark School District and Title IX implementation.

She writes: "The Ozark School District does not have a policy (that I could find) limiting the use of bathrooms or locker rooms to those of the sex discovered at birth. Similarly, I could find no policy protecting employees’ rights to use pronouns aligned with the sex discovered at birth. (There have been court cases prohibiting requirements to do otherwise, yet the new Title IX regulations would have required them; see https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/pronouns-free-speech-and-first-amendment for more information on that.)  One of the last contentious changes in the 2024 Title IX revisions involved the distinction for participation in sports — which has thankfully already been clearly defined by Missouri’s “Save Women’s Sports Act” championed for years by our own Senator Mike Moon and finally passed and signed in 2023.  I believe the Ozark Board can and should at least briefly address at least those first two topics, however, with a uniform, principled policy now rather than being pressured to offer an appeasement later."

Further, Tonsing requests the issue be brought before the School Board at its August 29 meeting:

"I believe now is the best time to make that statement because the Board can lay the groundwork to make clear the District’s position before there are any contentions on it.  Therefore, I requested an agenda item allowing for discussion of the Title IX expansion be added to the next meeting agenda."

Go HERE to read her article and a proposed statement regarding Title IX.