The plaintiff, New Richmond Parents for Strong Schools, is asserting three claims against the school district: Civil Rights Act violations of the right to privacy and sex discrimination and Title IX violations of the Education Amendments. The group is seeking “to protect the right of girls to privacy, dignity and equal access to school facilities,” according to the complaint.
The school district maintains that it is following the law. Its legal counsel, Michael Waldspurger, said that under case law in the Seventh Circuit, Title IX — which prohibits discrimination based on sex — has been interpreted by courts to include gender identity.
Despite that, the lawsuit marks a series of related challenges the New Richmond School District has faced. In March, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights initiated an investigation into the district for Title IX violations. Since January, parents have filled school board meetings to argue against transgender students using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
Cory Brewer, an attorney at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty who represents the plaintiff, said a better alternative to the current policy would be for the district to designate private facilities for trans students. “At issue is whether policies based on gender identity comply with federal law designating sex-separated facilities at public schools,” she added. She thinks her side has strong evidence that the school district’s policy only discriminates against female students.
“It will be interesting to see how the district responds, but there’s no indication that I’ve seen at all that this policy is impacting males or that males are avoiding the bathrooms — that males are feeling anxious or uncomfortable using the school facilities or males are relying on single-stall bathrooms and sometimes missing class," Brewer said.
The school district said in a statement that the lawsuit would “change the laws applicable to Wisconsin school districts related to transgender students and Title IX.”
“The District has remained compliant with all applicable laws in this area and will respond to the lawsuit as appropriate,” the statement continued. “As this is an ongoing legal matter, the District will not be commenting further at the current time.”
The New York Times reported that as a result of the Trump administration terminating multiple civil rights settlements meant to ensure transgender students’ rights to equal opportunity to an education, school officials must choose whether to comply with the government’s interpretation of federal anti-discrimination laws or to abide by conflicting state statutes.
“Since this is an issue where we have a circuit split, and courts around the country have issued differing rulings on similar fact patterns, we believe the legal landscape is absolutely evolving,” Brewer said.
Title IX in New Richmond: Election and divide
Christi Westlund urged the board to update its policy in a Feb. 10 work session. By then, she had already announced she was running for the board in the April 7 election, a race that featured three incumbents.
Write-in candidates Dom Ventura and Mary Stueve announced their candidacy as well. All three criticized the district’s bathroom policy, and all three earned endorsements from the St. Croix County Moms for Liberty chapter.
Westlund finished with the most votes, while incumbents Neal Melby and Marilyn Duerst finished second and third, respectively, to claim the open seats. Bryan Schafer, the board’s president, finished fourth. He oftentimes had to explain why the board couldn’t change the policy. He will finish his term having been on the board since 2018. He served as a member before that from 2006-2012.
As a counter to Moms for Liberty and its supporters, NR Students Against Moms for Liberty said on Facebook that it started up after hearing some of the rhetoric displayed by the bathroom policy’s critics: “We decided we had to step up and defend our classmates, and that is what we have done with the help of hundreds in the New Richmond Community." The group has also helped coordinate rallies supporting trans lives.
While some students have spoken at board meetings in favor of changing the policy, others have advocated for the rights of trans people to be preserved as the debate has led to multiple student protests on both sides of the issue.
Ace Mara, a transgender student at the high school, also spoke during public comment. Mara said he uses the girls’ bathroom because he is too scared to use the boys’ bathroom, fearing physical assault. He also described how hurtful many of the comments and rhetoric directed at him and other transgender people can be.