Connecticut town's schools are investigated for transgender athlete policies

A school system in Connecticut that's at the center of an ongoing legal fight over allowing transgender student athletes to participate in competitive girls' sports is being investigated by the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Education confirmed Tuesday, adding a new flashpoint in the national debate over trans girls' participation in youth sports.

James Demetriades, the mayor of Cromwell, said the town's school system could lose nearly $1 million in federal special education funding if the department determines it's in violation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that forbids discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal assistance.

The mayor, a Democrat, said Monday the school district would be ineligible for the state's athletic conference if it didn't allow student athletes to compete on sex-segregated sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

He said the district is currently following ''all applicable state and federal law as well as the rules for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference," the governing body for secondary school athletics in the state. In an interview on Tuesday, Demetriades said Cromwell currently has ''no gender diverse'' high school CIAC athletes.

''We don't know why Cromwell was targeted for this action,'' Demetriades said in a statement on Facebook. He said the investigation also includes restroom and locker room usage.

CIAC's policy of allowing transgender girls to compete in girls high school sports was first challenged in 2020 by four runners who said they were unfairly forced to race against transgender sprinters from Cromwell and Bloomfield. CIAC argued its policy is designed to comply with a state law that requires all high school students be treated according to their gender identity. It has also said the policy is in accordance with Title IX.

While a federal appeals court in 2022 dismissed the plaintiffs' challenge to CIAC's policy, saying they lacked standing and had not been deprived of a ''chance to be champions,'' the suit was later revived in 2023 and is currently pending. It could be ready for a trial in 2026.

The head of the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, Craig Trainor, said in a statement that the investigation was looking at whether Cromwell's policies were ''depriving girls and young women of equal athletic opportunities.''

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon added that, ''This Administration will fight on every front to protect women's and girls' sports.''

A community of more than 14,000, Cromwell is about 20 minutes south of the capital, Hartford. A rally in support of transgender youth was planned Tuesday evening at Cromwell High School.

In 2019, during President Donald Trump's first term, the Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation into the policy in Connecticut that allows transgender high school athletes to compete as the gender with which they identify. It determined the actions of the CIAC, Cromwell and several other communities in Connecticut resulted in ''the loss of athletic benefits and opportunities for female student-athletes.''

Days after taking office for his second term, Trump signed an executive order titled '' Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," which states that all funds from educational programs ''that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,'' will be rescinded.

In his post, Demetriades asked state officials to help hold the town harmless from liability and intervene if Cromwell is sued by the Department of Justice.

In March, the Department of Education opened an investigation into Portland Public Schools, Oregon's largest school district, over allowing a transgender athlete to compete on a high school girls' track-and-field team.