President Donald Trump’s Department of Education on Wednesday announced that the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) is violating federal civil rights law by allowing boys to play on female sports teams.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent a letter to MDOE Commissioner Pender Makin notifying her that MDOE has policies and practices that are in violation of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities receiving federal funding.
The OCR launched its investigation after a transgender-identifying boy claimed the victory in the Maine Class B championship for the Greely High School girls’ track and field team in February. The high school boy was allowed to perform on the girls’ team, despite Trump’s executive order barring males from participating on female sports teams.
Following Trump’s order, Maine officials publicly said they would not comply, siding with transgender-identifying males over women and girls and citing state law allowing students to play on teams that match their “gender identity.”
“The outcome of OCR’s investigation of MDOE confirms that it has violated federal antidiscrimination law by allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports and boys to occupy girls’ intimate facilities.” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.
“Today’s findings and proposed resolution agreement demonstrate to MDOE and any other entity receiving federal funding that the Trump Administration will not tolerate unlawful discrimination against girls and women,” he continued. “If Maine does not swiftly and completely come into compliance with Title IX, we will initiate the process to limit MDOE’s access to federal funding.”
The OCR proposed a resolution agreement with the MDOE to resolve the Title IX violations and has offered the department ten days to voluntarily agree or “risk imminent enforcement action including referral to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for proceedings and termination of funds, the DoE said. The OCR’s letter specifically stated that “[s]hould MDOE fail to direct the public school districts in its jurisdiction to adopt and implement policies and practices that comply with Title IX, OCR may initiate additional investigations into such school districts.”
The DoE said the proposed resolution includes the following items:
- MDOE will issue a directive to all public school districts in Maine requiring them to comply with Title IX and reminding them that noncompliance places their federal funding in jeopardy.
- The directive shall specify that Title IX compliance means that schools must forbid allowing males to participate in any athletic program, or access any locker room or bathroom, designated for females and that meaning of words such as “woman” and “man” are to be understood “in the context of the facts that there are only two sexes.”
- MDOE will restore to individual female athletes all individual recognitions such girls or women would have earned but for the recognitions being given to males who participated in girls’ competitions.
- For each female athlete whose record is restored, MDOE will send a letter to the female athlete expressing an apology on behalf of the State of Maine for allowing her educational experience and participation in school sports to be marred by sex discrimination.
- MDOE will rescind or revise any prior guidance documents or rules which permitted male athletes to participate in girls’ teams and categories and clarify that to the extent that state law conflicts with Title IX, federal law preempts state law unless a school district wants to lose federal funding.
- MDOE will require each school district in Maine to submit to MDOE an annual certification of compliance with Title IX and will promptly notify OCR of any credible report that a school district is still allowing a boy to participate in girls’ sports.
The Department of Education’s announcement comes after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Monday announced that its OCR found that the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association, and Greely High School have each violated Title IX. The HHS OCR launched its own compliance review in February following the same high school pole vault competition incident.
On Tuesday, the Maine Principals’ Association issued a response to HHS findings in a statement to Fox News Digital, doubling down on its support of males in female sports.
“The alleged violation is due to MPA’s policy which is a direct result of the Maine Human Rights Acts mandate that athletes be allowed to participate on the teams which align with their gender identity. MPA’s policy is consistent with Maine State Law,” the association said.
“The determination that MPA has violated Title IX first requires that MPA be beholden to Title IX due to receiving direct or indirect funding from the federal government,” the association continued. “In short, a small portion of our funding comes from 151 member schools who receive the majority of their funding from local property taxes and the state. The vast majority of our funding comes from ticket sales, sponsorships, streaming, television and other contracts. Therefore, it is MPA’s position that HHS does not have Title IX jurisdiction over MPA.”
The MPA told the outlet that it expects the subject to be discussed in the Maine legislature and that it “looks forward to a robust debate.”
“We urge all parties to this issue to air their questions, concerns, thoughts or opinions where they belong; in respectful debate in public hearings on the bills addressing this issue,” the statement read.“As always, we urge members of the public to keep this debate among adults and let our kids be kids. Please do not single any of our student athletes out, they are only abiding by the policy that the Maine Human Rights Act mandates.”
Following their statement, HHS OCR acting director Anthony Archeval provided a statement to the outlet warning of consequences for the state should they continued to defy Trump’s order. He said:
What HHS is asking of the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association, and Greely High School is simple – protect female athletes’ rights. Girls deserve girls-only sports without male competitors. And if Maine won’t come to the table to voluntarily comply with Title IX, HHS will enforce Title IX to the fullest extent permitted by the law.
President Trump’s executive order on “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” was created to protect female student athletes from having “to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males.” The order also mandates each federal department to “review grants to education programs and, where appropriate, rescind funding to programs that fail to comply with the policy established in this order,” which protects women “as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.