Trump admin says CIF, California Department of Education violated Title IX: What happens next?

CLOVIS, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – The U.S. Department of Education has announced the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, violated Title IX after allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls’ sports.

The announcement comes just weeks after high school athlete AB Hernandez won two CIF State Track & Field Championship titles in Clovis on June 1.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with protecting girls’ sports. It’s a dangerous and discriminatory attack on transgender children,” said Jason Scott, executive director of LGBTQ Fresno.

Scott responded to the news not with shock but with frustration, after the administration’s repeated calls to limit transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ sports in California and around the country.

Hernandez is the most public example, and was a catalyst for the violations, as the Jurupa Valley High School junior’s participation in the CIF state championship meet drew criticism nationwide.

Republican California State Assemblymember David Tangipa, who represents the state’s 8th Assembly District, says that after Hernandez’ participation and success in the state meet, and the previous warnings from the administration, he was not surprised to hear the news either.

“This is just stating what Title IX has always stated since the beginning, since all the way back in the 1970s, that we have protected spaces where girls need to have that opportunity,” he said.

The Republican says he’s thankful the U.S. Department of Education stepped in, and that it is providing a way for CIF and the California Department of Education to come into compliance.

They will be given 10 days to complete a list of ‘action items,’ including forbidding biological boys from participating in girls sports, restoring girl athlete recognition if they lost records, titles, or awards to trans athletes, while the entities would each have to send personalized apologies to each of those girls, among other list items.

If the CIF and CDE don’t come into compliance, the Trump Administration has threatened they will face the U.S. Department of Justice.

“If the state were to agree to the demands that are being asked of them, it would greenlight bullying and harassment,” said Scott. “It would tell students, parents and coaches that it’s acceptable to question a child’s identity.”

Tangipa meanwhile, says the state has to follow the federal order, and says the state needs to approve his idea for a new ‘open division’.

“If anyone wants to say whatever they want to say, identify with whatever they want to identify with, they’ve got the open division that they’re going to compete in,” he said. “Then we have the Title IX protected girls division.”

CIF declined to comment on what they called a legal matter.

The California Department of Education, meanwhile, provided the following statement:

“The California Department of Education believes all students should have the opportunity to learn and play at school, and we have consistently applied existing law in support of students’ rights to do so.”