The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has opened investigations into three Michigan public school districts to determine whether they included sexual orientation and gender ideology content in the curriculum without notifying parents.
The districts under review include the following:
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- Detroit Public Schools Community District
- Godfrey-Lee Public Schools (Grand Rapids area)
- Lansing School District
According to a release from the Justice Department, the investigations will examine whether the districts include sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) content in any pre-K through 12th-grade classes.
If such material is being taught, federal officials will review whether parents are being notified of their right to opt their children out of that instruction.
The probe will also assess whether the districts restrict access to single-sex spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, based on biological sex.
“This Department of Justice is fiercely committed to ending the growing trend of local school authorities embedding sexuality and gender ideology in every aspect of public education,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Supreme Court precedent is clear: parents have the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children, which includes exempting them from ideological instruction which conflicts with their families’ sincerely held religious beliefs. And Title IX demands that we guard the safety, dignity, and innocence of our youngest citizens—our children—by ensuring that they have unfettered access to bathrooms and locker rooms of their biological sex.”
The Justice Department said the review will evaluate whether the districts, which receive federal funding, are complying with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 as well as the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
Officials emphasized that the Civil Rights Division has not reached any conclusions and that the investigations are ongoing.