Tri-Cities school board wants ‘urgent’ federal intervention over WA athlete gender laws
The Kennewick School Board on Thursday filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education over Washington state policies on who can use female locker rooms and compete on girls sports teams.
The board voted 4-0 at its Wednesday board meeting to file the complaint, with board member Michael Connors abstaining. He said the complaint was a “wildly partisan document.”
The complaint claimed violations of federal law by Washington state Superintendent Chris Reykdal, the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.
It said that the district is caught between dueling Washington state laws and President Trump’s executive orders, most recently his Feb. 5 “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” order.
The complaint requests “urgent” federal intervention due to what it called “open and egregious Title IX violations” in student athletics in Washington state.
It cites the 2024 girl’s state 400-meter championship, which was won by a Spokane transgender athlete.
Allowing the athlete to again compete in the 2025 season violates Trump’s executive order, which calls that “demeaning, unfair and dangerous” to competitors and denies them the opportunity to excel in competitive sports, said the Kennewick school complaint.
Washington state law
Washington state law prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and the Washington state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction has mandated that the Kennewick School District revise its Gender-Inclusive Schools Policy and Procedure to match state law.
The changes requested mostly are focused on specific wording in the policy that some state officials find offensive, said Gabe Galbraith, president of the Kennewick School Board.
The district now follows state law allowing access to student restrooms and locker rooms based on the gender identity of students rather than Trump’s order that restricts use based on biological sex, according to the complaint.
It also allows participation on sports team based on gender identity as the state law requires, rather than restricting participation based on biological sex as mandated by the Trump administration.
“Our school board now faces a serious dilemma: Either the Kennewick School District complies with state mandates that put our federal funding in jeopardy; or it complies with executive orders — that ensure protection of our girls and young women — and risks retaliation from Washington state officials,” the complaint said.
The Kennewick School Board was morally obligated to file the complaint, it said.
But there also are concerns about funding.
Violating Trumps’ executive orders could jeopardize the federal money the Kennewick district relies on, according to the complaint.
About 10% of the district’s annual budget of nearly $322 million comes from the federal government, and the loss of the money would be devastating to the district, the complaint said.
Its state apportionment for enrollment amounts to about half of all general fund revenue, at nearly $160 million.
Kennewick coaches led the charge last year to get the school board to adopt a resolution denouncing transgender girls from participating in divisions with their cisgender peers. Coaches said girls sports were “under attack.”
Washington state superintendent responds
Reykdal said in a statement Thursday that his office continues to advise Washington’s school districts to stay in compliance with state law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
“The president’s executive order related to trans female athletes attempts to override the authority of states and local school districts by requiring educational institutions to agree to discriminate against trans female athletes in order to continue receiving federal funds,” he said.
But an executive order is not law and does not override state law, he said. His office will enforce the state’s current laws until Congress changes the law or federal courts invalidate Washington state laws.
He is prepared to take legal action if any federal dollars are paused, withheld or removed from any Washington public school, he said. The Trump Administration has yet to pause a single cent of payment to any of the state’s 295 public school district.
Washington nondiscrimination laws already comply with federal civil rights and nondiscrimination laws, Reykdal said.
States are permitted to provide greater protections for students than what is required by federal minimum standards, and Washington’s laws fit within the scope of what is allowed by federal law, he said.
It’s unclear how many students in Kennewick schools might identify as transgender. State demographics data does not discriminate transgender students from their cisgender peers, and state law guarantees the rights of students to be treated consistent with the their gender identity while at school.
School board members speak
But Kennewick board Vice President Micah Valentine said that girls are losing titles, scholarships and opportunities under state policies and being forced into unsafe environments.
He accused Reykdal of behaving like a dictator and ignoring the will of the 90% of local residents, who he believes do not want “biological boys in girl’s sports or spaces.”
“We are asking to have politics removed and return to normalcy,” he said.
The complaint also says that state policy blocks schools from notifying parents about a child’s gender identity decisions, which erodes the trust between schools and parents.
Galbraith said that Reykdal falsely believes that Title IX provides protection based on gender identity rather than biological sex, which undermines student rights.
The complaint asks that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights:
▪ Affirm that federal executive orders take precedence over conflicting state policies.
▪ Affirm that the district will not lose federal funding.
▪ Investigate in coordination with the Department of Justice whether OPSI had violated Title IX and federal protections for parental involvement in education.
March 26 meeting
Galbraith said at the meeting that the board was led to submit the complaint out of compliance concerns and “mixed messaging” from Reykdal.
Retaliation for filing a Title IX complaint is illegal, said school board member Josh Miller.
“I don’t have any doubt that Reykdal wants to retaliate against us with every fiber of us being, but again I think we have that protection,” Valentine said. “It’s a 90-10 issue. He’s just so underwater on this issue. Nobody wants this, nobody wants this. And everybody knows it in their heart-of-hearts and their guts that this is wrong. And we have to protect kids.”
Connors said he’s a big fan of Title IX and its protections, but doesn’t think filing a complaint is the way to go about these changes.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” he said. “You guys want to change this? Go lobby. Go drive your backsides to Olympia and get in front of these people — but you’ve got to talk to the Democrats, you’ve got to talk to the people you disagree with in order to at least see where they are.”
Miller says the point of their “whistle blower complaint” is to request clarification and bring both state and federal parties to the table. He doesn’t believe they’re playing into partisan politics.
“I fundamentally believe that we need whistle blowers when there is discrimination based on our federal laws, we need people to come forward and say, ‘This is wrong.’ That is how we desegregated schools. That is how we gave women the right to have a fair and competitive environment to play in with Title IX. It’s because people came forward and said, ‘It is not fair, it is not right,’” he said.
But Connors said they’re putting themselves in the middle of a “whirlwind,” and that requesting a federal review would only result in a federal outcome.
“The state and the feds are going to go into this, regardless of whether we file this or not. It’s happened,” he said.