WI School District bills Law Group $11K for records on Trans-Identifying Male Student Showering with Girls.

Wisconsin School District Charges Law Firm Over $11,000 for Records Related to Transgender Incident

A recent incident at a local high school in Wisconsin has sparked controversy and legal action. An 18-year-old male student, who identifies as a woman, allegedly showered naked in front of four female students at Sun Prairie East High School. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) has filed an open records request for any and all communications related to the incident, calling on the district to address the issue immediately and put policies in place to protect the safety and privacy of all students.

Costly Records Request

The Sun Prairie Area School District (SPASD) has responded to WILL’s request, claiming it would cost over $11,000 to fulfill the law firm’s request for records surrounding the incident. The district claims it would cost nearly $5,000 to search the individual email accounts of all certified staff at EHS for relevant documents and over $5,000 for EHS staff to search for all texts, messages, voicemails, and other communications related to the March incident. Until the estimate is paid, the district will not proceed to locate any responsive records to this request.

Questions and Concerns

WILL’s director of education policy, Libby Sobic, has expressed concerns about SPASD meeting its Title IX obligations under existing federal law. Title IX requires school districts to have clear policies on what is appropriate and what is not, and it requires them to have a Title IX coordinator who ensures that these policies are implemented. However, when the incident was brought to the attention of school administrators, they failed to take any of these steps.

New Title IX Rules

Last month, the Biden administration proposed new Title IX rules that seek to prohibit schools receiving federal funds from enforcing policies preventing men from competing in women’s sports. This proposal is designed to kneecap legislation passed by more than 20 states that protects female spaces “on and off the field,” meaning women’s sports and locker rooms would be available to female-identifying men. SPASD has since publicly disputed WILL’s characterization of the March 3 incident.

• Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington.
• He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review.
• Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood