A U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that the Denver Public School (DPS) system violated Title IX, the federal law that bans sex discrimination in education. According to the agency, this happened after DPS created all-gender bathrooms and allowed students to use facilities that aligned with their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

It began after the Office for Civil Rights, a part of the department, started an investigation in January into how the district handled a request to redesignate the girls’ restroom as all-gender at East High School. DPS had responded by updating the signage to “all gender” instead of “boys” or “girls” in some bathroom facilities.

District officials also added all-gender designations to the toilets to accommodate students who wanted to use facilities that aligned with their gender identity rather than their sex at birth, the office found. However, a second all-gender bathroom was later added to the same floor to “ensure fairness.”

Privacy Measure

The district’s redesign plan for an all-gender restroom involved keeping another restroom on the same floor as the girls’ restroom for boys only. Officials stressed that the all-gender bathrooms installed in the girls’ restroom, on the other hand, were done with privacy and security in mind, with the walls of the stalls in the new units reaching 12 feet up the sides of the toilets.

They also noted that students still had the option of using the remaining restrooms designated for boys and girls in addition to single-stall, all-gender restrooms found throughout the school. The school also established a process where students could request a bathroom based on their gender identity.

Department of Education Sues Over Policy Changes

In a Thursday announcement, the U.S. Department of Education, however, said that the decision violated Title IX. “The District of Education decision to re-designate a multi-stall restroom at East High School as an “all-gender” restroom, along with its policy allowing students to use the restroom that matches their gender identity instead of their biological sex, runs afoul of Title IX and its implementing regulations,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.

The proposed resolution would require the district to:

Restore the all-gender restroom back to a sex-segregated facility.

Reverse its bathroom policies that allow students to access bathrooms on the basis of their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

“Biology-based” Definitions

The school system was also asked to include “biology-based definitions” of the terms “male” and “female” in its policies and practices relating to Title IX.

It also requested a letter from the district to schools in the system reminding them that restrooms must ensure that students’ privacy, dignity, and safety are protected while still being equally accessible to both sexes.

Trainor said the department was working with the district on a corrective action plan but threatened legal action against DPS if it chose not to comply with the proposed resolution. “If the District fails to agree to the terms of the proposed resolution within 10 days, the Department will initiate enforcement action against the District,” the statement read.

The district could face consequences if it did not return to the conditions it had set. This could include loss of federal funding if it did not accede to the demands of the department’s resolution, which are non-negotiable.

Student Privacy

Trainor said that the district’s decision to redesignate the restroom to all-gender and use students’ gender identity instead of their sex to determine bathroom use was “a violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and its implementing regulations.”

He said it also had the effect of “denying students equal access to the restroom, as well as creating a hostile environment.”

A threat to safety, privacy, and dignity

In his statement, Trainor also said: “Allowing students to use the intimate facilities at East High School and other schools in the district on the basis of their gender identity, rather than their biological sex, threatens student safety, privacy and dignity, and is an example of the self-defeating gender ideology that the Trump Administration is combatting.”

The education secretary said he would not let the district or any school district undermine federal law.

“The Trump Administration will work relentlessly to hold accountable school districts that harbor the ideological fanatics and policies that sully our students’ educational experience with sex discrimination,” he added.

DPS Says Changes Were Student Led

In a statement sent to the news outlet 9News by DPS on Wednesday, spokesperson Monica Wilson said that creating the all-gender restrooms at East High was the result of a student-led process.

“Students in our district are served by a range of restroom options, including single-stall, all-gender restrooms,” the statement said. “We are currently reviewing the letter we received from the Department of Education.”

DPS was among the school systems that the Trump administration recently sent letters to in advance of a federal investigation to examine whether it discriminated against LGBTQ students and employees.

Conflict Continues

DPS isn’t alone in this conflict, with other school systems in different states that have considered bathroom designations such as “all-gender” facing similar potential consequences from the administration and its attempts to regulate such policies.

President Donald Trump signed an order in June to bar transgender girls from playing on sports teams not designated for their sex. The move had been met with criticisms, with many saying it would violate Title IX.

This isn’t the first time a federal agency has come for the trans community. Recently, the Justice and Education Departments wrote letters to U.S. schools and universities asking for information on policies to investigate whether they discriminated against the LGBTQ community.