Close to 100 school board members from across the state sent a letter on Monday to officials at the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the Minnesota State High School (MSHSL) urging them to comply with Title IX requirements that address transgender athletes competing in high school girls sports.
The letter cited findings made by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights on Sept. 30 that stated the MDE and MSHSL were in violation of Title IX by permitting males to participate in female-designated athletic programs and to have access to female-only sensitive spaces, such as locker rooms and restrooms. The state organizations were given 10 days to accept a resolution agreement in order to avoid federal enforcement which could include suspending or terminating federal funding. It was addressed to Commissioner Willie Jett of the Minnesota Department of Education, Dan Peschel and Erich Martens of the Minnesota State High School League, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Gov. Tim Walz.
The letter sent to state officials included the signatures of Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools board members Lisa Atkinson, Charles Johnson, Dan White and Jessica Mason. It stated those who supported state compliance were representing themselves and their constituents, and were acting not on behalf of the respective school districts they were elected to serve. A press release distributed to media outlets outlining the concerns of board members who supported compliance with Title IX directives listed Atkinson as spokesperson for the group.
“As recipients of federal financial assistance, failure to correct these violations directly threatens our schools’ ability to serve our students and communities,” the letter stated. It also referenced that “protecting fairness in women’s sports is paramount,” and “allowing males into female-only locker rooms and restrooms leads to documented harms to female students’ safety, privacy and access to educational activities.”
The MDE and MSHSL officials were asked for “swift compliance” to the federal mandates.
“Continued noncompliance risks the withholding of federal financial assistance which would adversely affect educational programs, extracurricular activities and resources for over 875,000 students statewide. Every public school district in Minnesota is facing significant budget challenges. We cannot afford to jeopardize millions in federal funding and suffer ongoing budget uncertainty for continuing to violate Title IX. Every Minnesota student would be unfairly impacted,” the letter concluded.
