The office of newly confirmed Biden Education Department Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon (pictured) announced Thursday it has proposed collecting data on schools and districts that have added a “nonbinary option to male/female data categories” to ensure “accurate and inclusive student identities and student experiences.”
Lhamon’s office said the decision to propose collection of data on the “nonbinary option” was informed “by listening sessions with stakeholders.”
“The Civil Rights Data Collection provides crucial information for evaluating students’ experiences in America’s public schools,” Lhamon said in a statement, adding:
Especially given the COVID-19 pandemic, today’s announcement of proposed data elements for the 2021-22 collection comes at a critical moment. We look forward to receiving and reviewing public comments on the proposed data elements and to working with schools and districts to collect these essential data.
Responding to Lhamon’s tweet that that she is “very excited” about the new data collecting information, Trump-era Acting Assisstant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Education Department Candice Jackson observed that Lhamon’s “excitement” is actually over “destroying [the] integrity of data intended to track sex discrimination & disparate outcomes for girls.”
“Apparently female students have achieved equality & overcome discrimination so we no longer need to collect data on sex,” Jackson added.
The Senate confirmed Lhamon, a controversial left-wing activist, in October only after Vice President Kamala Harris broke the 50-50 tie to facilitate her approval.
Lhamon held the same position in the Obama administration, with several key actions attributed directly to her, including her work to help draft the 2016 guidance to schools directing them to allow transgender students to use bathroom and locker room facilities that correspond to their gender identity rather than their biological sex.
In 2014, Lhamon also signed off on guidance that told schools they could be investigated for violating federal civil rights law for racial disparities in their discipline decisions, with the presumption the disparities were due to institutional racism.
Additionally, she issued the Title IX guidance that placed cases involving alleged campus sexual assaults in the hands of college administrators who held what many referred to as “kangaroo courts,” as they denied due process rights to accused students.
During her confirmation hearing in July, Lhamon told senators Title IX protects students against gender identity discrimination as well as that pertaining to sexual orientation. She added that, if confirmed, she would reinstate the Obama-era policy on racial disparities in discipline practices.
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