Jefferson County Schools’ attempt to deflect is a telling response to the federal government’s allegations that the district violated federal law. 

Last month, the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) found Jeffco in violation of Title IX, which bars sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools. 

OCR found Jeffco permitted “male students to access female bathrooms, locker rooms, and overnight accommodations, and to compete in female sports,” denying female students “safety, dignity, and equal access to educational programs and activities.” 

Male students “may occupy up to 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams,” OCR determined. 

The department gave Jeffco 10 days to take several concrete steps to remedy the violations by signing a “Resolution Agreement” detailing those actions. 

The district initially replied on March 20, noting key officials were out for spring break, but their official response came last week. 

Jacquelynn Rich Fredericks, Jeffco’s assistant general counsel, requested additional information “before we can fully respond,” raising two main questions. 

First, the district questioned OCR’s finding that 61 male students may occupy girls teams’ roster positions. “That calculation does not match up with the data we shared, or with the totals in OCR’s modified version of the chart we provided,” Fredericks wrote. 

Second, she asked for clarification on a recent legal settlement reached between the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) and several school districts — notably Colorado Springs District 49 — regarding CHSAA’s bylaw protections for transgender athletes. The districts’ policies protecting girls’ sports could have drawn CHSAA sanctions against teams whose schools followed district policy over the association’s bylaws.

The settlement allowed participating districts to, as The Gazette reported, “maintain separate sports teams, locker rooms and overnight travel accommodations based on biological sex while remaining in good standing with CHSAA.” The districts agreed to pay $60,000 to cover the association’s legal and operational costs in exchange for avoiding CHSAA-imposed penalties.

OCR cited that agreement to assert that Jeffco isn’t bound by CHSAA’s bylaws. 

Jeffco objected, arguing it wasn’t party to the settlement, so OCR’s characterization does not align “with our understanding of the case.” The district asked for OCR to produce the relevant agreement they rely on. 

But the CHSAA settlement isn’t simply referenced by OCR to support what Jeffco could do. The Resolution Agreement requires Jeffco to formally state that it will not use policies of any third-party organizations, including CHSAA, to justify violating Title IX. 

The fact that Jeffco isn’t party to the District 49 settlement is irrelevant to affirming it will follow federal law over CHSAA’s bylaws. Besides, is CHSAA really going to take Colorado’s second-largest district to court after losing to smaller ones? 

Let’s be real: Jeffco’s response is strategic deflection — stalling to drag out the process and avoid admitting any wrongdoing. And therein lies the bigger issue. 

Jeffco’s counsel never disputed, let alone addressed, OCR’s core allegations and substantive findings: that a girl shared a bed with a male student on a school trip to Washington, D.C., 17-year-olds were bunking with 11-year-olds, or males were accessing female bathrooms and locker rooms. And all without parental knowledge or consent. 

Nor did the district defend its policies as lawful or argue that it’s under no obligation to change them. 

Instead, Jeffco challenged a legal settlement it wasn’t part of and questioned the methodology behind a single, albeit shocking, datapoint. 

In reality, the district exemplifies how institutions dodge accountability by disputing how conclusions were reached, requesting more information and running out the clock — without acknowledging the possibility that their policies aren’t lawful. 

The federal investigation was prompted by the yeoman’s work of parent group Jeffco Kids First. Founder Lindsay Datko believes OCR’s response will center on overarching policy concerns. 

“This is a policy-based issue, we’re not in litigation, the policy is not in dispute,” Datko predicted they would say. “You aren’t disputing the policy. We’re coming at you for your policy.” 

Let’s be clear: The OCR isn’t up for arguing facts with Jeffco. It’s demanding policy corrections in three major buckets. 

First, the district must rescind and revise policies permitting males to “access female intimate facilities, share overnight accommodations, and compete in female sports.” Additionally, they must issue a public statement affirming Title IX applies irrespective of state law and prominently post instructions on their website for filing grievances. 

Second, Jeffco must review all athletic records, titles, honors and awards given to biological male athletes competing in girls’ athletics and restore those recognitions to the female athletes who earned them — accompanied by an apology letter to the female athlete. 

Finally, the district must provide training for all relevant staff and administrators in the revised policies. Each bucket has individual requirements for documenting and reporting compliance. 

These buckets cut at a sensible concern: that girls should never be forced to compete against, or risk injury from, male athletes with biological advantages. 

The key question is where the district plans to take this — and what leverage, if any, it has. 

“Jeffco is facing a $70 million deficit,” Datko said. “They’re going to try to save themselves with this deficit by asking for a mill levy override from taxpayers in November. They cannot afford $1, much less freezing federal funds in any amount.” 

Thus, the only card the district has is to stall. But in the end, dogs that don’t bark still have to answer for what happened in the night. 

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.