Biden's DOE investigates Wisconsin high school after trans 18-year-old exposed penis to 4 freshman girls in locker room shower

The US Department of Education has begun an investigation into an incident involving a trans-identified male student who is alleged to have exposed himself to four freshmen girls in the high school women's locker room while showering. "I'm trans, by the way," he reportedly said before turning around and showing his male genitalia to the girls.

A complaint was filed with the DOE by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty and has been taked up by the DOE's Office for Civil Rights. They will have to determine if the Sun Prarie School District responded appropriately to the complaint under Title IX.

However, the Biden administration's DOE has proposed a new understanding and interpretation of Title IX which would include gender identity as a protected class. Under those provisions, the male student's stated gender identity would give him the standing to shower with girls and use other facilities that were previously women only.

The DOE said they agreed to investigate because Title IX "prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any program or activity operated by a recipient of federal financial assistance from the Department." The OCR, it added, will be "neutral" and "collect and analyze the evidence it needs in order to make a decision." 

The incident in question took place at Sun Prairie East High School in March. After gym class, four female, freshman students in swimsuits entered the women's locker room and discovered that a male student was there as well. He approached them in the shower area and said "I'm trans, by the way." The male student was 18-years-old.
 

The complaint from WILL stated that, "As the girls began to shower, the male student approached them, entered the shower area, announced 'I'm trans, by the way,' and then fully undressed and showered next to the girls," all of whom kept their swimsuits on.

While he was initially turned towards the wall, he eventually swivelled around and faced them, exposing his male genitalia, the complaint said. 

In their complaint, WILL claimed that the school failed to uphold the basic protections afforded to the girls by Title IX, saying "no one at SPASD contacted the girls to offer supportive measures or an opportunity to file a formal complaint of sexual harassment until after WILL became involved."

In a statement, district representative Patti Lux said that while they hadn't been made aware of the "specific complaint" that led to the investigation, they "anticipate the complaint relates to an incident the District previously investigated and addressed."

Libby Sobic, WILL Director of Education Policy, said: “School districts need to think through what loosening boundaries for single-sex spaces could mean for girls. Parents are understandably concerned about whether school districts—like the Sun Prairie Area School District—are doing everything required to protect girls in bathrooms and locker rooms. WILL is calling on the district to act promptly to restore a sense of safety and privacy in its schools.” 

The new rules advocated by the DOE would "establish that policies violate Title IX when they categorically ban transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity just because of who they are." The DOE's goal is to minimize harms to trans-identifying students. 

"Preventing students from participating on a sports team consistent with their gender identity can stigmatize and isolate them, and those students may not be able to participate at all if the only other option is to participate on a team that does not align with their gender identity," they write.

Their reason for proposing this change to the interpretation of the Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was put in place to give girls access to athletics and funding for those programs, is that Joe Biden signed an executive order on his first say in office demanding that every federal agency create policies to be more inclusive of trans-identifying persons. 

Allowing male students to expose themselves to female students in locker room showers is part of that plan of inclusivity.