Families file injunction to stop Jeffco Schools’ policy of rooming students by gender identity

Three families who filed a federal lawsuit earlier this year, alleging the Jefferson County School District violated parents' fundamental right to make decisions about the upbringing and education of their children, are now asking the court to expedite a preliminary injunction that would halt the school's policy of rooming students on overnight trips by gender identity rather than by sex.

Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, the plaintiffs in Wailes v. Jefferson County Public Schools, state in the filing that injunction is necessary to "prevent further irreparable harm" as the student plaintiffs will soon begin to participate in school activities requiring overnight trips, starting as early as Nov. 5.

When plaintiffs Joe and Serena Wailes allowed their 11-year-old daughter to attend a district-sponsored trip to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., they were told their daughter would be rooming with three other fifth-grade girls, Alliance Defending Freedom said.

After their daughter was assigned to share the same room and bed as a boy on an overnight school trip, the Wailes sent a demand letter to Jeffco Public Schools to address their policy that states all school-sponsored trips will assign rooms by gender identity rather than sex — a policy many parents did not know about, the legal outfit said.

"Parents, not the government, have the right and duty to direct the upbringing and education of their children, and that includes making decisions to protect their child's privacy," Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Kate Anderson said in a news release. "Jeffco currently asks students who identify as transgender to choose, with their parents, whether they will share accommodations with students of the same or opposite sex. This is done confidentially, without divulging the private information of any other student. Yet Jeffco rooms all other children based on gender identity without giving those students or their parents the same information or choice."

That policy, according to Anderson, violates parents' right to direct their children's care and to protect their privacy, the students' rights to bodily privacy and the religious freedom of parents and students alike.

"If Jefferson County Public Schools is going to continue placing students of the opposite sex in the same room on overnight trips — as it confirmed it would — the district must let parents be the ones to make decisions about their children's privacy," Anderson said in the release.

The Denver Gazette asked school officials for comment on the new filing, but has yet to receive a response as of press time.

However, in response to the initial lawsuit, the district said: "Families always have the ultimate choice whether their student participates in any unique programming that involves overnight accommodations. We take these issues seriously, and we follow all Colorado state laws when it comes to how we treat students, staff and families."