A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by several parents seeking to block a Jefferson County School District policy allowing transgender students to sleep or dwell in rooms according to their gender identity on overnight trips.
The court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted and that parents’ rights to raising their children don’t extend to controlling a public school’s curriculum or policies.
The lawsuit was filed by several parents concerned their children may share rooms, beds or bathrooms with transgender students on school-sponsored overnight trips — such as the district’s Outdoor Lab or sports tournaments. Four families alleged that the district’s policy violated their right to make decisions about the upbringing and education of their children, their child’s privacy rights and their religious freedom rights.
One family, Joe and Serena Wailes, alleged the district violated their constitutional rights when their 11-year-old daughter was assigned to sleep in the same bed as a transgender girl during a 2023 school trip. The district said it didn’t know the student’s transgender status when rooms were assigned and when chaperones were made aware of the issue, the transgender student was immediately assigned to a different room.
A school district policy directs that students should be “assigned to share overnight accommodations with other students that share the student’s gender identity” instead of rooming by biological sex. The lawsuit alleged that the district refused to give parents truthful, pertinent information about their children’s overnight accommodations. The district said travel arrangements are based on a case-by-case assessment of the privacy interests of any student, and the district will not knowingly assign students of different birth sexes to share a bed. The district said its policy aligns with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
Parents can’t control public school curriculum or policies
Judge Regina M. Rodriguez stated that while parents have a fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of their children, this right doesn't extend to controlling a public school's curriculum or policies.
“While parents may have the right to instill moral and religious values in their children, parents have no right to replace public education with their own personal views nor a right to control each and every aspect of their children's education and oust the state's authority over that subject,” Rodriguez wrote.
The ruling quotes a 10th Circuit case, that a parent doesn’t have “a constitutional right to control each and every aspect of their children's education and oust the state's authority over that subject."
Protecting the psychological well-being of all students
The court also rejected the claim of the student’s fundamental right to bodily privacy, arguing there is no fundamental privacy right to avoid all risk of intimate exposure to a transgender person. It said courts that have addressed transgender students’ access to school bathrooms and locker rooms have “roundly rejected that there is a fundamental parental right at issue.”
It notes that JeffCo’s policy doesn’t require anyone to disrobe in front of anyone else, nor does it even require that plaintiffs be in the restroom at the same time as other students.
The court noted that Jeffco's Outdoor Lab bunkhouses provide privacy by offering single-person bunks, private changing spaces, and restroom/shower stalls with doors or thick, long privacy curtains. Hotel rooms have bathrooms with doors for privacy during sports travel, it said.
The policy also allows any student to request alternative accommodations, such as attending only during the day. One of the families used this option, the court noted.
"Requiring implementation of Plaintiffs’ views on sex and gender identity at Jeffco at the expense of making a transgender student feel unsafe or unwelcomed in an educational environment falls outside the fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of one’s child,” the judge wrote.
On the families’ First Amendment claims, the court ruled that JeffCo’s policy doesn’t force any religious belief upon students, punish anyone or show intolerance toward religion. It said the policy applies to all students and allows for accommodations for any reason, not just transgender students.
It said the district has a legitimate purpose that is “fostering an educational environment where all students are safe and included so they can learn.” It noted a compelling state interest in protecting transgender students from discrimination and promoting an inclusive environment for all.
The judge ruled one family, Robert and Jade Perlman, lacked standing because they hadn’t alleged any past injuries and their claim of a future injury at a potential overnight sports trip was too speculative.
The district has stated that families always have the ultimate choice whether their student participates in any unique programming that involves overnight accommodations.
In June, the Trump administration launched a Title IX investigation into the district over its policy.
It was not immediately clear Friday afternoon if the parent plaintiffs intended to appeal the decision.
