The Montezuma-Cortez school district is now asking to be named a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit led by District 49 in the Colorado Springs area. Filed against the Colorado High School Activities Association, the complaint seeks a broader blanket ban on transgender participation in school sports.
A Colorado school district that recently stoked controversy by reversing nondiscrimination protections for LGBT students and staff is now expressing interest in joining a lawsuit challenging the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sporting events.
According to Colorado Public Radio, on Tuesday, the conservative-dominated board of the Montezuma-Cortez district approved a series of changes removing all references to “sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression” from its nondiscrimination policy.
During the same meeting, the board also introduced a new policy prohibiting transgender athletes from joining school sports that match their gender identity rather than their biological sex.
Colorado Public Radio notes that rural Montezuma-Cortez district is now asking to be named a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit led by District 49 in the Colorado Springs area. Filed against the state High School Activities Association, the complaint seeks a broader blanket ban on transgender participation in school sports.
Sherri Wright, an official representing western and southern Colorado on the State Board of Education, shared her opinion during the Tuesday meeting.
“We do not need to endanger our girls,” Wright told the Montezuma-Cortez board, saying that cisgender girls could face an increased risk of injury when competing against transgender athletes.
Some Montezuma-Cortez board members have indicated that changes in policy are necessary to protect the district from potential legal action. In a May meeting, board member Mike Lynch pointed out that President Donald Trum has threatened to withhold federal funding from districts that “support certain previously protected classes like sexual orientation, gender expression, or gender identity.”
Lynch later corrected himself, saying that Trump has yet to strike protections with respect to sexual orientation. Nonetheless, Lynch added, groups that are already entitled to discrimination-related protections do not all need to be explicitly named in district policies.
“If it is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, then the policy covers it,” he said.
Some Montezuma-Cortez families have protested the changes.
Emily Christenson, a parent of a Montezuma-Cortez student, told board members that language matters—and that, by removing certain terms from the nondiscrimination policy while allowing others to remain, the district is sending an unfortunate message to staff and students.
“You may feel … that it’s redundant to list [all potential protected classes] there, but to only remove some of the protected classes from your policy clearly states that you condone harassment inflicted upon [the other groups in] our community,” she said.
Colorado Public Radio reports that another resident, Cayce Hamerschlag, told the board that it is, in effect, choosing to deny rights to a select class of students without any apparent legal purpose.
“In the spirit of transparency,” she told the board, “Perhaps you should change your slogan from ‘Every Student. Every Day.’ to ‘Certain Students. Some days.’”
Sources
Cortez school district considering removing protections of sexual orientation and gender identity
Girls’ sports off limits to boys in Montezuma-Cortez school district
Rural Colorado district takes aim at LGBTQ policy protections, seeks to join trans athlete lawsuit
Join the conversation!