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Today — 12 March 2025Main stream

Ohio college 'illegally forcing students' to share bathrooms with opposite sex: watchdog

12 March 2025 at 10:14

A conservative legal watchdog group is urging both the Trump administration and the state of Ohio to investigate Kenyon College, which they allege is breaking the state's recently passed bathroom bill categorizing restrooms by biological sex.

America First Legal sent letters to Craig Trainor, the Department of Education's acting assistant secretary in the Office for Civil Rights, and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost Thursday morning urging the agencies to open an investigation of the college.

"Ohio law is clear: multi-occupancy restrooms must be designated for either men or women," Will Scolinos, AFL legal counsel said. "Schools of higher education should focus more on educating students rather than re-educating them into radical gender policies that require students, men and women, to share the same restrooms. It is not normal."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the college said, "Kenyon fully complies with all state and federal laws."

OHIO TRANSGENDER BATHROOM LAW TAKES EFFECT AS TOP PROPONENT CALLS IT ‘VICTORY FOR SAFETY & COMMON SENSE’

"We are committed to ensuring that women on Kenyon’s campus do not experience discrimination or harassment of any kind, just as we do for all students and the faculty and staff who support them," the spokesperson said. "We look forward to working with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and the Ohio Attorney General to address any concerns they may have."

Kenyon College is being accused of violating Ohio law by allowing multi-occupancy restrooms in its administrative and academic buildings to avoid sex-based requirements. The law, which went into effect in February, designates student restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities by biological sex.

According to its policy update, Kenyon justifies its administrative multi-occupancy restrooms by stating that the restrooms are "not, and cannot be, designated for use exclusively by students" and students "are permitted to use these restrooms if they choose to do so, but the student restroom requirements outlined above do not apply to these facilities."

However, Ohio law states that any "restroom... accessible to multiple individuals at the same time" must adhere to sex-based entry restrictions, AFL argues.

SPEAKER JOHNSON ANNOUNCES NEW CAPITOL BATHROOM POLICY IN RESPONSE TO DELAWARE LAWMAKER CONTROVERSY

The letter points out that other Ohio schools comply by applying these restrictions to all multi-occupancy restrooms.

AFL also alleges the policy doesn't align with President Donald Trump's executive order, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government."

"The order establishes that it is the official policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female, defining 'sex' as ‘an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female [and] is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity,’" AFL's letter to the DOE states. 

"Furthermore, Kenyon’s failure to provide separate restrooms for men and women in academic and administrative buildings appears to violate Title IX," the letter reads.

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is already investigating Denver Public Schools, a school district, for potentially violating Title IX by installing multi-stall, all-gender restrooms.

"Let me be clear: it is a new day in America, and under President Trump, OCR will not tolerate discrimination of any kind," Trainor said in a news release last month.

TRANS INMATE IN PRISON FOR KILLING BABY MUST GET GENDER SURGERY AT 'EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY': JUDGE

Kenyon, a private university, encouraged its students affected by the new law to "seek support" from its civil rights office, college chaplains, campus safety, the counseling center and its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) office.

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The Department of Education, which Trump has indicated he wants to fully dismantle and where workforce reductions are already underway, is a key battleground in the new administration for overturning Biden-era DEI and woke policies.

 It also launched an investigation into 60 universities due to allegations of antisemitism and violence against Jewish students since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.

Before yesterdayMain stream

Hiding kids' 'gender identity' from parents is common in blue state fighting Trump on trans issues: watchdog

2 March 2025 at 06:00

More than 50 school districts in Maine have policies that allow minors to hide their gender identity from their parents, according to a new watchdog report. 

Parents Defending Education (PDE), a grassroots organization tracking gender ideologies in schools across the country, filed public records requests to confirm that at least 57 of the state's 192 school districts have policies excluding parents from knowing whether their children identify as another gender.

The report comes after President Donald Trump chastised Democrat Maine Gov. Janet Millis last week over her refusal to enforce Trump's "No Men in Women's Sports" executive order.

TRUMP VOWS TO CUT OFF FEDERAL FUNDING TO MAINE OVER REFUSAL TO COMPLY WITH 'NO MEN IN WOMEN'S SPORTS' ORDER

"It was totally unsurprising to see the governor of Maine go to the mat to keep males in women's sports when over 50 school districts in Maine have written policies to deceive parents about their own child," PDE spokesperson Erika Sanzi told Fox News Digital Friday. 

"We have seen a groundswell of parents in Maine speaking out about this now that they are aware of it, and it is our hope that districts begin to roll back these policies, not only because of the executive orders from the Trump administration but because nearly 80% of their constituents oppose them," she said.

In one example from the state's largest district, Portland Public Schools, district policy on "transgender and gender expansive students" requires that if "a student and their parent or legal guardian do not agree with regard to the student’s gender identity or gender expression, the school shall abide by the wishes of the student with regard to their gender identity and gender expression while at school.

"School staff shall comply with the student’s wishes regarding disclosure of their transgender status to others, including but not limited to parents or guardians, students, volunteers or other school staff, unless the student has explicitly authorized the disclosure or unless legally required to do so."

MAINE FEMALE ATHLETE ‘GRATEFUL’ FOR TRUMP'S FOCUS ON TRANS COMPETITORS AFTER LOCAL LEADERS ‘FAILED’ GIRLS

Policies like Portland's are also still in place after Trump signed an executive order at the end of January, "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling," which states that "steering students toward surgical and chemical mutilation without parental consent or involvement or allowing males access to private spaces designated for females may contravene Federal laws that protect parental rights." 

Trump has already threatened to cut off Maine's federal funding if it continues to defy his orders. 

"I heard men are still playing in Maine," Trump told to a gathering of Republican governors in Washington last week.

"I hate to tell you this, but we're not going to give them any federal money. They are still saying, 'We want men to play in women’s sports,' and I cannot believe that they're doing that. … So, we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up."

MAINE STATE REP TALKS ‘EXTREME’ TRANSGENDER ATHLETE POLICY

Trump signed the executive order barring men from women's sports earlier this month, which directs federal agencies to review grants, programs and policies that fail to align with efforts to block male participation in women’s sports "as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth." The order mandates strict enforcement of Title IX and threatens to revoke federal funding from noncompliant educational institutions and athletic organizations.

After the order, several other blue states indicated they would not be complying with it, including California and Minnesota.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Maine Department of Education for comment. 

DOGE puts DEI on chopping block with termination of over $370M in education department grants

17 February 2025 at 07:51

In just 48 hours, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed a whopping $370 million in taxpayer dollars being spent on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the Department of Education.

DOGE, the newly formed department led by Elon Musk to purge spending by the federal government, revealed in a post on X that they terminated 70 DEI training grants within the department.

According to DOGE, the grants totaled $373 million.

One grant was reportedly funding training for teachers to "engage in ongoing learning and self-reflection to confront their own biases and racism, and develop asset-based anti-racist mindsets," the cost-cutting department said.

DOGE SLASHES OVER $100M IN DEI FUNDING AT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: ‘WIN FOR EVERY STUDENT'

Over the past several weeks, DOGE has announced the canceling of various streams of funding to DEI in education, including $9.7 million for UC Berkeley to develop "a cohort of Cambodian youth with enterprise driven skills."

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WARNS THAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS MUST REMOVE DEI POLICIES OR LOSE FEDERAL FUNDING

The latest spending sweep comes just days after DOGE announced the termination of another 89 DOE contracts totaling $881 million, which included more than $100 million in DEI grants

"Hurrah" Heather Higgins, CEO of Independent Women's Voice, wrote in a post on X in response to the latest DOGE cuts.

The Education Department has been cracking down on DEI practices in education, ordering all 50 state education departments last week to remove DEI policies within 14 days or risk losing federal funding.

The letter said the "overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this nation's educational institutions" will no longer be tolerated.

Fox News' Landon Mion contributed to this report.

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