Colorado parents sue school district over transgender student room policy

Several Colorado parents are suing their local school district after an overnight school trip allegedly tried to place a transgender-identifying male student in a hotel room — and ultimately the same bed — with an 11-year-old girl.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal organization that advocates for religious liberty, filed its opening brief Wednesday in “Wailes v. Jefferson County Public Schools” with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on behalf of four families.

The lawsuit alleges that the district, located near Denver, allows biologically male students to share overnight accommodations with girls based solely on gender identity without notifying parents or seeking their consent.

According to the complaint, the district’s policies violate parents’ fundamental right to make decisions about the upbringing and education of their children and places students in uncomfortable or potentially unsafe situations.

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During the summer of 2023, Joe and Serena Wailes’s daughter had just finished fifth grade and was reportedly traveling with classmates on a school trip to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

The Wailes said their daughter was assigned to a two-bed hotel room with three other students — two girls from her school and one from another school in the district, the suit stated.

According to the complaint, as the children prepared for bed on the first night, the daughter learned that her bedmate was biologically male and identifies as a transgender female. The girl reportedly went into the bathroom to call her mother, who was nearby and serving as a chaperon.

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The room assignment came despite assurances from district officials that boys and girls would be placed on different hotel floors, the lawsuit said.

Jefferson County Public Schools’ policy, however, reportedly states that students may be assigned overnight accommodations based on gender identity. 

The lawsuit also claims the district does not allow families to opt out or request that their children room only with students of the same biological sex.

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“The district’s policy of rooming students by gender identity rather than sex without prior notice or a sex-separated alternative violates the families’ free exercise, bodily privacy, and parental rights,” ADF said in a press release on Thursday. 

The lawsuit also cites several other instances in which children were placed in similar situations. In another example, the family of an 11-year-old boy attending a school-run camp said they were told his counselor would be male, but later learned the counselor was a biologically female adult who identifies as non-binary and had been assigned to supervise the boys in their cabin and during showers.

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“Parents, not government bureaucrats, have the right and responsibility to direct the upbringing and education of their children, and that includes making informed decisions to protect their children’s privacy,” ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights, said in a statement.

“This fundamental right is especially vital for all parents who wish to raise their children according to their religious values and protect their children’s bodily privacy. Jefferson County Public Schools claims to ‘freely grant accommodations to all,’ yet they will not offer equal accommodations to religious students to access educational opportunities without sacrificing their bodily privacy.”

Jefferson County Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.