Keller ISD could be facing a federal civil rights investigation after the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed a complaint with the agency, claiming the North Texas school district is engaging in “unlawful sex discrimination.”
The district’s school board voted back in June to require students, faculty, and staff to use bathrooms that correspond to their biological sex at birth and prohibit district employees from promoting or requiring pronoun usage “inconsistent with an individual’s biological sex as it appears on the individual’s birth certificate,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), the ACLU of Texas claimed that Keller ISD’s new policies would “harm transgender, non-binary, and intersex students” by invading their privacy and creating a “hostile school environment” in which they could be bullied or harassed.
“Title IX bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, as this Department has recognized. Through its actions, Keller ISD is engaging in sex discrimination in violation of Title IX. … We urge the Office for Civil Rights to open an investigation into Keller ISD’s sex discrimination and to take all necessary remedial measures to ensure that the district complies with Title IX,” the letter reads.
When the school board voted on the policies during its June 28 meeting, some parents and community members spoke in favor of them.
Ashley Hine told WFAA, “Our children have been punished at school for not calling kids by other pronouns, which I think is crazy. We were taught English grammar. You don’t get to just create your own adjectives or your own pronouns.”
Sara Zampierin, director of Texas A&M’s Civil Rights Clinic, told KERA News that the DOE regularly enforces violations of Title IX, a federal law that bans discrimination based on sex at educational institutions that receive federal funding.
It is unclear whether the DOE will launch an investigation into Keller ISD based on the ACLU of Texas’ most recent complaint. However, such complaints have prompted investigations into both Carroll ISD and Grandbury ISD.
“An investigation doesn’t necessarily mean there was a violation. It just means that they’re going to look into this further and use their investigatory powers,” Zampierin said.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the ACLU of Texas targeted Keller ISD last year over its adoption of a policy that instituted content guidelines to regulate students’ exposure to potentially controversial or sexually explicit topics in library books and other instructional materials. The left-leaning organization filed a complaint with the DOE, alleging that the guidelines constituted unlawful sex discrimination.
Other North Texas school districts have also taken action to restrict controversial subject matter from being taught or made readily available to students. However, some school systems have largely chosen not to act on such issues.
Dallas ISD, for instance, prompted outrage among parents and community members after keeping the book Jack of Hearts (and other parts) by Lev A.C. Rosen on library shelves for months after some of the sexually explicit content in the book was brought to the attention of the school board, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“If it had been a movie, it would be rated X. It’s offensive and completely inappropriate for our children,” Tami Brown Rodriguez said to The Dallas Express back in February.
Dallas ISD seemingly pulled the title from shelves earlier this year, but it is unclear how many potentially inappropriate books remain.