Complaint filed with Office of Civil Rights to investigate Title IX violations in Rhode Island

The Law Centre at the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity filed an official complaint with the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education last evening, calling for an investigation into alleged Title IX violations by nine named state actors.

Referring to President Trump’s recent Executive Order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” and a related US DOE “Dear Colleague” letter to K-12 schools advising of planned enforcement of the Trump Administration’s 2020 Title IX rule.

The complaint letter named the following entities:

Each of the named entities has been notified separately of the complaint, which can be viewed in-full, here. 

Attorney Gregory Piccirilli, advisor to the Law Centre, crafted the complaint, which includes a letter and 14 exhibits detailing prior communications with RIDE, RIDE Regulations and Guidance, RIIL Rules, and the trans-gender policies of the six school districts.

The 16-page letter, in part, cited the February 28 letter to RI school districts by Attorney General Peter Neronha, which questioned the legality and enforceability of the above cited federal actions and essentially advising state education entities to maintain their existing trans-gender policies. 
The Law Centre believes such an approach puts every school district at severe risk of loss of federal funding, discrimination lawsuits, or further OCR investigations. 

To avoid legal and financial consequences, the Center recommends that RIDE, RIIL, and every school district in the State should rescind their existing trans-gender policies, if they defy the new federal law, and to craft their own policies that comply with both state and federal statutes.

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From the complaint – The Rhode Island Interscholastic League:

The Rhode Island Interscholastic League (“RIIL”) is a “voluntary nonprofit association whose
membership consists of school principals who chose to become members.” Hebert v. Ventetuolo, 480 A.2d 403, 407 (R.I. 1984). Pursuant to Article 1, Section 2 of its Rules and Regulations, the RIIL will: “supervise and control the athletic programs, contests, and schedules and matters relating thereto, in participating secondary schools (grades 9-12) of the State of Rhode Island, whose principals are members of the Rhode Island Association of School Principals, to maintain, improve and raise the athletic standards in the participating schools of the State of Rhode Island, and in general carry on any other lawful activity which is calculated, directly or indirectly to promote and enhance the goals of the Rhode Island Interscholastic League.” (Exh. F) For practical purposes, nearly every public and private secondary school in Rhode Island belongs to and adheres to the policies of the RIIL.

The RIIL has adopted a Rule which conforms to the Commissioner of Education’s Gender
Regulation. Article 3: ELIGIBILITY, Section 3(B) (Exh. G) states:

GENDER IDENTITY 1) The RIIL recognizes the value of participation in interscholastic sports for all member school student athletes. The RIIL is committed to providing all student-athletes with equal opportunities to participate in RIIL athletic programs consistent with their gender identity. This policy addresses eligibility determinations for students who have a gender identity that is different from the gender listed on their official birth certificates.

The RIIL has concluded that it would be fundamentally unjust and contrary to applicable state and federal laws, to preclude a student from participation on a gender specific sports team that is consistent with the public gender identity of that student for all other purposes.

Therefore, for purposes of sports participation, the RIIL shall defer to the determination of the student and his or her local school regarding gender identification.

In this regard, the RIIL member school shall determine a student’s eligibility to participate in a RIIL gender specific sports team based on the gender identification of that student in current school
records and daily life activities in the school and community at the time that sports eligibility is
determined for a particular season. Accordingly, when a member school submits a roster to the RIIL,
it is verifying that it has determined that the students listed on the gender specific sports team are
entitled to participate on that team due to their gender identity and the member school has determined
that the expression of the student’s gender identity is bona fide and not for the purpose of gaining an
unfair advantage in competitive athletics.

Students who wish to participate on a RIIL gender specific sports team that is different from the gender identity listed on the student’s current school records are advised to address the gender identification issue with the local school and/or district well in advance of the deadline for athletic eligibility determinations for a current sports season.

Students should not be permitted to participate in practices or try out for gender specific sports teams
that are different from their publicly identified gender identity. Nothing in this policy shall be read to
entitle a student to selection to any particular team or to permit a student to transfer from one gender
specific team to a team of a different gender during a sports season. In addition, the RIIL shall expect
that, as a general matter, after the issue of gender identity has been addressed by the student and the
member school, the determination shall remain consistent for the remainder of the student’s high school sports eligibility. The RIIL has concluded that this policy is sufficient to preclude the likelihood that a student will claim a particular gender identity for the purpose of gaining a perceived advantage in athletic competition.

The policy appears to defer to the local school districts the determination of whether a male still
identifies as a female and can therefore play on a girls’ team. However, as you will see below, some school districts refer to this RIIL regulation as the justification for their local school gender policy. This creates a whipsaw effect, where the RIIL and local schools point fingers at each other for creating these policies in the first place.

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About the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity:

As Rhode Island’s leading free-enterprise public policy research and advocacy organization, our Center is nonprofit and nonpartisan. The Center is dedicated to providing concerned citizens, the media, and public officials with empirical research data, while also advancing market-based solutions to major public policy issues in the state.