Get Kids Back to School Newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 1

Update on Title IX

Get Kids Back to School has been at the forefront of helping parents protect their daughters’ rights to private spaces, including bathrooms, locker rooms and sports. Everyone has heard by now that the Biden Administration executive order, which illegally went far beyond the intent of Title IX, has been thrown out by the courts. A Trump executive order has been issued in its place.

But Michigan school districts are not even attempting to comply. They’ve been subject to threats by the Michigan Department of Education, who wrote a letter filled with legal nonsense, claiming that the State’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act somehow overrides Title IX. It doesn’t. One of the State’s largest education law firms, Thrun Law, had no problem telling districts in 2023 to comply. Now? They say “it’s complicated.”

It's not. Title IX protects the rights of young women to private spaces. If districts fail to comply, they are violating Title IX. That’s why GKBTS has helped file complaints with the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights against seven districts so far:

• Plymouth-Canton

• Rochester

• Hartland

• Mt. Pleasant

• Walled Lake

• Lowell

• Royal Oak

If your district is not complying with Title IX and the Trump Executive Order, please reach out, and we can start the process of filing a complaint against your district. Complying with the law is simply not optional.

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DEI: What's the latest?

A Trump executive order also directed districts to dismantle “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs in their schools. Unlike the Title IX EO, this executive order and the concept it protects is relatively new. What makes a Title IX violation is specified by a long set of rulings, interpreting Title IX over the years. Since this is new, there’s no equivalent for DEI. And what DEI means is different for different people.

In Michigan, we’ve banned race-conscious hiring since 2006. After the Grutter v. Bollinger ruling by the Supreme Court, saying that some race-conscious admissions were acceptable, Michigan voters enacted Proposal 2, which is now Article I, Section 26 of the Michigan Constitution. It’s pretty simple: using race in school hiring or programming is illegal. The US Supreme Court has now agreed, ruling in Students for Fair Admissions that race-conscious admissions are unlawful.

Again, school districts, often run by liberal school boards, don’t want to comply. I was at a board meeting recently where the HR director proudly announced that “we are working hard to make sure our teachers look like our students.” That’s illegal, and it has been for 20 years.

Other types of DEI aren’t quite as clear. Clubs? Curricula? The details of what needs to be removed hasn’t been fleshed out yet. When they are, the Department of Education will likely issue a new rule, and then districts will have to comply. Until then, challenges might take longer and might be overturned by courts, so patience is warranted. More to follow on that.

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Books? SCOTUS is on the way (maybe)

I am frequently asked about the public’s right to know what is being taught in the classroom. My district (under different leadership) never had a problem sharing that information with parents. A well-run public institution is transparent and seeks citizen engagement.

Today? Not so much. Districts actively conceal what children are being taught. From sex-themed books in the middle school, to vapid liberal talking points replacing great books in the high school, districts don’t want you to know.

Help from the United States Supreme Court might be on the way, in the form of a case being argued in April called Mahmoud v. Taylor. The facts of the case should sound familiar to local parents:

"In November 2022, Respondent Montgomery County Board of Education mandated new “inclusive” storybooks that celebrate gender transitions, explore Pride parades, and introduce same-sex romance between young children. At the time, parents were promised they would be notified and could opt their children out when the storybooks were read. That practice was consistent with Maryland state law and the Board’s own policies, both of which contemplate parental notice and opt-outs. In March 2023, the Board confirmed in a press statement that before one of the storybooks is read, “a notification goes out to parents” and, “[i]f a parent chooses to opt out, a teacher can find a substitute.”

But the very next day, without explanation, the Board reversed course. Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, it announced, no further notice would be provided and no opt-outs tolerated as to the storybooks. Yet the Board continued to allow opt-outs from analogous instruction in the sex education unit of state-mandated health classes, including for high schoolers. If parents did not like what was taught to their elementary school kids, their only choice was to send them to private school or to homeschool. Hundreds of parents—mostly Muslim and Eastern Orthodox—packed the Board’s summer meetings. Dozens testified that they had religious obligations not to subject their young children to instruction on gender and sexuality that conflicted with their religious beliefs.

The parents emphasized how impressionable young children are and how they lack independent judgment to process such complex and sensitive issues. In response, Board members publicly accused them of promoting “hate” and compared them to “white supremacists” and “xenophobes.” After the Board refused to accommodate them, Petitioners filed suit under the Free Exercise Clause, seeking to retain the same opt-out rights the Board had guaranteed just months earlier. The district court denied a preliminary injunction, and the Fourth Circuit affirmed in a 2-1 decision."

Parents across Michigan have challenged books being offered in their schools, and have, time and time again, hit brick walls, including in Dearborn, Milan, Spring Lake and Chippewa Valley.

The Supreme Court hears this case next month. If the Supreme Court finds for the parents, which would be a watershed result, the Court will have affirmed the most basic of parental rights: the right to direct the education of one’s children.

This right has been guaranteed under Michigan law for decades, codified in MCL § 380.10. But school districts have ignored parental rights, making the same arguments that were made by Montgomery County.

Get Kids Back to School supports the petitioners, and is hoping the Court agrees. When there is an update, I’ll be reporting back. Districts will no longer be able to hide the curriculum; a parent can’t consent if a parent doesn’t know what’s being taught. A result is likely due by the end of June.

Thanks for reading

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