Colorado parents whose daughter went on a Jefferson County Public Schools trip and was assigned to share a bed with a biological boy who identified as a girl ramped up their legal fight this week — filing a lawsuit in federal court that attacks the district’s policy for protecting and integrating transgender students.
That policy aims at reducing the “stigmatization” of transgender students and ensuring equal opportunities for all students while also protecting privacy.
The lawsuit filed this week by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group, argues that parents must be notified in advance and allowed to make sure their children are assigned to rooms with students of the same sex instead of rooming with students sharing the same gender identity.
This issue arose because, under Jeffco Public Schools’ policy, trip supervisors assign students to overnight accommodations with other students based on gender identity rather than the sex assigned at birth. It led to a situation where Joe and Serena Wailes allowed their 11-year-old daughter to attend a school trip to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. in June 2023 after they were told their daughter would be rooming with three other fifth-grade girls. When their daughter was in the room getting ready for bed on the first night of the trip, she learned that she had been assigned to share a bed with a boy who identified as a girl.
The Wailes parents later sent letters to administrators asking them to let parents opt out of any policy that assigns children to rooms based on gender identity rather than birth sex. They have two younger children who are scheduled to join an East Coast field trip in June 2025, according to the lawsuit.
But the 53-page lawsuit says Jeffco officials repeatedly denied their request.
“Jeffco doubled down on their policy and made it clear that they will continue to ignore concerns from parents and hide information from parents about who their children will share rooms with on overnight school-sponsored trips,” ADF attorney Mallory Sleight said Thursday in an emailed response to questions.
“We are asking Jeffco to let parents be the ones to make decisions on their children’s privacy while protecting the privacy of all children.”
ADF has proposed a policy of allowing parents to opt out of gender-based rooming when they sign up their children for trips. “Or Jeffco could anonymously ask parents for permission for their child to room with a student of the opposite sex,” Sleight said.
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Jeffco Public Schools parents allege transgender policy violates parental rights following overnight class trip
Jeffco Schools officials on Thursday did not respond to requests for comment. Faced with legal demand letters last year, officials said they did not “knowingly” mandate the contested bed-sharing.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court on behalf of parents of three children contends parents have a fundamental right to make decisions about the upbringing and education of their children that is deeply rooted in the nation’s history and tradition, a right that includes protection against “violations of bodily privacy which result when they must expose their bodies to the opposite sex in intimate settings, like overnight accommodations or shower facilities.”
Jeffco’s policy for transgender students sets goals of “reducing the stigmatization of and improving the education integration of transgender and gender nonconforming students” while also ensuring “the privacy of all students” and “fostering cultural competence and professional development.” School officials can’t disclose information that could reveal a student’s transgender status unless legally required or with permission from the student.
For school trips, “students who are transgender should be assigned to share overnight accommodations with other students that share the student’s gender identity consistently asserted at school,” the policy says, and “under no circumstance shall a student who is transgender be required to share a room with students whose gender identity conflicts with their own.”
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