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The biggest high school district by enrollment and land area in the state of California voted 3-2 to adopt a Title IX resolution that would only allow female students in girls’ sports, on Monday.
The vote comes as the state’s educational agencies face a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged Title IX violations by allowing biological males to play in girls’ sports.
Kern High School District regularly enrolls more than 40,000 students and employs more than 1,700 staff per year across its 31 schools. Now, it becomes the 16th school district, individual school or board of education in California to adopt an amendment to comply with Title IX, rejecting the current state policy that protects trans athletes in girls’ sports.
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The resolution was authored by Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education President Sonja Shaw. Shaw’s district is one of the 16 in California to also pass a resolution on the issue.
“I authored this resolution to be the voice of our communities — to stand with our girls and protect the truth that should’ve never been silenced,” Shaw said. “Boys are boys. Girls are girls. God made them beautiful just the way they are. It’s time to put fairness, truth, and common sense back into education.”
Kern County School District, which is separate from Kern High School District but shares a county, was one of the other districts to propose its own resolutions back in August.
Trans athletes have been legally allowed to compete in girls’ sports under California state law dating back to 2013. President Donald Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order back in February, but the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) became one of the first high school sports leagues in the country to announce it wouldn’t comply with the order.
Trump’s DOJ announced it would sue the state over the issue back in July, weeks after a trans athlete won two state titles in girls’ track and field on the final day of May. The DOJ is engaged in a similar lawsuit with Maine’s educational agencies over the same issue, and has given a deadline of Oct. 10 to Minnesota’s to change its polices on the issue, otherwise a lawsuit is likely to be launched there too.
The state’s continued enabling of trans athletes in girls’ sports has resulted in several controversial related incidents across the state, and some have resulted in separate lawsuits.
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In Riverside County, two girls’ cross country runners sued the Riverside Unified School district after a trans athlete took one of their varsity spots. The lawsuit partially advanced past motions to dismiss in September. In that same county, girls’ volleyball players have sued the Jurupa Unified School District after spending the previous three seasons sharing a court and locker room with a trans teammate – the same athlete who took the girls’ track and field titles back in the spring.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has openly said he agrees that males competing in girls’ sports is “unfair,” and has even said he’s heard complaints about the issue in his state from “like-minded” parents at his kids’ soccer games.
Newsom’s office previously provided a statement to Fox News Digital suggesting the state’s ongoing trans athlete issue is not his responsibility.
“CIF is an independent nonprofit that governs high school sports. The California Department of Education is a separate constitutional office. Neither is under the Governor’s authority. CIF and the CDE have stated they follow existing state law — a law that was passed in 2013 and signed by Governor Jerry Brown (not Newsom) and in line with 21 other states. For the law to change, the legislature would need to send the Governor a bill. They have not,” the statement read.
A bipartisan survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found the majority of California residents oppose biological male trans athletes competing in women’s sports.
That figure included more than 70% of the state’s school parents.
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“Most Californians support requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching the sex they were assigned at birth,” the poll stated.
“Solid majorities of adults (65%) and likely voters (64%) support requiring that transgender athletes compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with. An overwhelming majority of public school parents (71%) support such a requirement.”
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