Trump administration investigating ConVal School District’s gender identity policies; complaint alleges Title IX violation

The Trump administration has opened an investigation into the ConVal School District nearly eight months after a national organization filed a complaint accusing high school officials of allowing a biological male to use the girls’ locker room.

The complaint contends that ConVal violated the federal Title IX law, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education, by prioritizing its policies on transgender students. It’s based on a 2024 email exchange between the principal and a ConVal Regional High School parent who took issue with the district allowing students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity instead of their biological sex. The parent stated the practice made their daughter uncomfortable.

Defending Education, the national group that filed the complaint, aims to “fight indoctrination” and “restore schools at all levels from activists imposing harmful agendas,” according to its website.

Superintendent Ann Forrest said the district is reviewing the complaint and maintained that ConVal is “committed to following state and federal anti-discrimination laws.”

“The District’s anti-discrimination policies constitute a comprehensive plan required by state law to prevent, assess the presence of, intervene in, and respond to incidents of discrimination,” Forrest said in an emailed statement.

The case at ConVal

In the 2024 email exchange with Principal Heather McKillop, a parent said their 14-year-old daughter felt uncomfortable when an 11th-grade biological male used the girls’ locker room. The parent, whose name is redacted from documents attached to the complaint, identifies themselves as a member of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that advocates for parental rights.

“In this case, my 14-year-old daughter is sharing the locker room with a 16- or 17-year-old male, which feels inappropriate and uncomfortable to us,” the parent wrote.

McKillop responded by citing state law.

“It would be discriminatory to restrict a student’s access to bathrooms or locker rooms based on their gender identity,” McKillop wrote. “In light of this, your daughter is welcome to use a bathroom stall for changing.”

She also offered to meet with the parent and the student to discuss other options, which the parent declined.

“The girls locker room is a place where my daughter belongs,” the parent wrote. “She should not have to make other arrangements because an individual that doesn’t belong is being allowed to be there.”

Policy claims

In its announcement, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said that “it is alleged that discrimination based on sex is also notably absent” from the school’s policy. The complaint refers to the 2024-25 student handbook.

“It is the policy of ConVal High School to maintain a learning environment that is free from discrimination based on race, religion, disability, gender identity, or relationship preference,” according to the non-discrimination section of the handbook.

The subsequent section of the handbook addresses Title IX, saying that the district “does not discriminate on the basis of sex and prohibits sex discrimination.”

Sex is one of 15 protected classes listed in the school’s non-discrimination Policy AC, both in the August 2024 version approved before the parent raised concerns in September 2024 and in the version most recently approved by the school board in January 2025. That policy does not explicitly mention bathroom or locker room access.

“Placing the burden on girls to move out of their own intimate spaces when there is a male present is not just absurd, it also discriminates against girls,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that reversed protections for transgender individuals and sought to enforce “the right to single-sex spaces” in public schools and other organizations that receive federal funding.

New Hampshire law allows transgender people to use the bathroom of their choosing and includes gender identity in protections against discrimination. Republican legislators have mounted efforts to repeal that and separate spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex instead of gender identity, but they have been unsuccessful thus far. Gov. Kelly Ayotte, like her predecessor Chris Sununu, has vetoed that legislation twice now.

Peterborough’s state representatives, Peter Leishman and Jonah Wheeler, were the only two Democrats to vote with Republicans on those bills. Wheeler declined to comment on a pending investigation. Leishman did not respond to an interview request prior to deadline.

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