California High School District Votes on Title IX Resolution
The largest high school district in California, both in terms of student enrollment and land area, recently voted in favor of a Title IX resolution. This decision, made on Monday with a 3-2 result, stipulates that only female students are eligible to compete in women’s sports.
This vote comes amid ongoing legal challenges faced by state education institutions from the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ suspects that the current policies permitting biological men to join women’s sports might violate Title IX regulations.
The Kern High School District serves over 40,000 students and employs more than 1,700 staff across its 31 schools. It has now become the 16th district or school board in the state to adopt a resolution aligning with Title IX, thereby diverging from existing state guidelines that support transgender athletes in women’s sports.
This particular resolution was crafted by Sonjasho, who chairs the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education. His district is also one of the 16 that plans to enact a similar resolution.
“I wrote this resolution to represent our community and stand firm for our girls. We should not be silent,” Shaw stated. “Boys are boys. Girls are girls. God created them as they are. It’s time we restore fairness, truth, and common sense in education.”
The Kern County school district had also introduced its own resolution earlier in August, separate from the Kern High School District.
California law permits transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports, a policy in place since 2013. An executive order from President Trump back in February aimed to “Stop men from women’s sports,” but the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) stands out as one of the first high school sports leagues in the nation. In July, after a transgender athlete claimed two state titles in women’s track and field, the DOJ announced it would pursue legal action against the state. Similar lawsuits are currently active in Maine, with Minnesota facing a deadline to revise its policies by October 10th.
The discussion surrounding transgender athletes in girls’ sports has sparked various controversial cases across California, leading to a series of individual lawsuits.
In one case from Riverside County, two girls who are cross-country runners sued their district after a transgender athlete took one of the varsity positions. This lawsuit had some motions to dismiss it proceed back in September. Additionally, another case emerged where a girl volleyball player filed a suit against her district after sharing court space and locker room facilities with her transgender teammates over three seasons.
Governor Gavin Newsom has acknowledged that allowing biological males in girls’ sports is “unfair.” He mentioned hearing complaints on the matter from parents who share similar concerns at their children’s soccer games.
Newsom’s office has emphasized that the ongoing challenges related to transgender athletes are not directly under his purview. They explained, “The CIF is an independent, nonprofit organization managing high school sports. Furthermore, the California Department of Education functions separately from the governor’s authority. Both CIF and CDE adhere to existing state laws.”
A recent poll by the California Institute of Public Policy indicates that a significant number of Californians, particularly over 70% of state school parents, oppose allowing biological male transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
The poll revealed that a strong majority—65% of adults and 64% of voters—support the idea that transgender athletes should compete on teams that correspond to the gender they were assigned at birth, rather than their identified gender.
