Louisiana school boards joining Liz Murrill's Title IX lawsuit
BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) -- More Louisiana school systems are signing on to Attorney General Liz Murrill's lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education over recent changes to the federal statute known as Title IX.
Title IX is the law that prohibits educational programs or activities that receive federal funding to discriminate on the basis of sex. Under Biden’s new Title IX rules that will take effect Aug. 1, there will be protections from discrimination based on gender identity for the first time and harassment protections for pregnant people and student parents.
Murrill announced Tuesday that 16 school boards across the state have officially joined our the lawsuit as plaintiffs. Those school boards include:
- Acadia Parish School Board
- Allen Parish School Board
- Bossier Parish School Board
- Caddo Parish School Board
- Caldwell Parish School Board
- DeSoto Parish School Board
- Grant Parish School Board
- Jeff Davis Parish School Board
- LaSalle Parish School Board
- Natchitoches Parish School Board
- Ouachita Parish School Board
- Red River Parish School Board
- Sabine Parish School Board
- St. Tammany Parish School Board
- Webster Parish School Board
- West Carroll Parish School Board
The suit is in response to what Murrill calls “the Biden administration’s illegal expansion of Title IX rules” regarding transgender students in schools.
For the first time all schools and educational programs that receive federal funding will face consequences if they fail to “promptly” respond to discrimination complaints based on gender, gender identity or sexual orientation.
“Thank you to the school board members and leaders in these districts for stepping up to the plate and protecting women," Murrill said in a news release issued Tuesday. "We have received tremendous support from school leaders and parents all across this State. They want us to get back to teaching our children how to properly read and write, and to not abide by this reckless mandate, which ignores significant safety concerns for young women students in pre-schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities across Louisiana and the entire country.”
Murrill said more school boards are likely to join when they convene their regular meetings.
"These were the school boards that were able to act expeditiously to call school board meeting and pass the resolution," she said. "Understandably, some other school boards had scheduling conflicts or other obstacles that prevented them from being able to act as quickly."
Biden’s changes also include an expansion to the definition of sexual assault in K-12 schools and colleges.
In the case, named Louisiana v. The U.S. Department of Education, Louisiana is joined by the states of Mississippi, Montana and Idaho.
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