The Douglas County school board will consider a policy to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls sports — a move that comes as the body’s outgoing conservative majority prepares to hand over the reins to a more progressive slate of directors.
The Board of Education, which oversees the Douglas County School District, is scheduled to discuss a draft of a policy called “Preserving Fairness and Safety in Sports” at its public meeting on Tuesday evening. The measure is in its first reading, meaning directors will not take a final vote on the policy.
The outgoing board also is scheduled to discuss a measure that would allow certain Douglas County charter schools to renew their contracts for 10 years instead of the current five-year extension.
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The draft sports policy — a copy of the one adopted earlier this year by District 49 in El Paso County — only recognizes two genders: biological males and biological females.
The policy also bans transgender students from participating in sports that correspond with their gender identities. This means transgender girls can’t participate in girls sports or go in their locker rooms. The policy also prevents transgender girls from sharing hotel rooms with other female students.
“Boys and girls are not similarly situated in the context of sports or competition involving athletic ability or contact — boys are born with significant inherent advantages that, while they do not guarantee the victor of any given boy over any given girl, give most boys a substantial competitive advantage over most girls,” the policy reads.
The draft policy cites President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. The Trump administration has also targeted K-12 districts, including Denver Public Schools, by threatening to pull federal funding for having gender-neutral bathrooms.
The Colorado High School Activities Association has left it up to schools and districts to decide whether to allow transgender athletes to participate in sports, citing conflicting directives from the state and federal governments.
District 49, which has more than 10,000 students, sued CHSAA and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser earlier this year in an effort to overturn state law that district officials say prevents them from enacting their transgender athlete ban.
Whether the Douglas County school board will pass the transgender athlete ban remains to be seen. The seven-member board’s majority will flip next month after voters selected four candidates backed by the teachers union in last week’s election, forgoing a conservative state that was more aligned with the four outgoing directors.
The Community’s Voice, Community’s Choice candidates who won the election — Kyrzia Parker, Tony Ryan, Clark Callahan and Kelly Denzler — didn’t directly address their stance on transgender athletes on their website.
“(O)ur candidates fully support girls’ sports and believe female athletes deserve the same resources, equipment and well-maintained facilities as boys because equality in athletics isn’t political, it’s just fair,” the website said,
The new school board members will be sworn in on Dec. 2.
The terms of the current board’s majority — board president Christy Williams, Tim Moore, Becky Meyers and Kaylee Winegar — end this month and they did not seek re-election. Williams, Meyers and Winegar were elected in 2021 along with former board president Mike Peterson, who resigned two years ago.
The conservative majority became known for controversial policies soon after their election, including the firing of the superintendent and diluting the district’s equity policy.
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