Senators Grill Civil Rights Nominee on Transgender College students, Sexual Assault Investigations

The Biden administration’s choice to head the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office was raised Tuesday by a Senate committee on some of the most sensitive and controversial issues the agency is addressing, including whether schools should be required to practice transgender Allowing Girls to Play Sports Teams on Girls and How to Fairly Investigate Student Claims of Sexual Assault.

Catherine Lhamon, who was nominated as Assistant Secretary of State for Civil Rights, a role she previously held in the Obama administration, was an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s positions on these issues and a force behind several Obama-era directives that sparked national debates.

“It is vital to make sure that the [Education Department’s office for civil rights] returns to impartial enforcement consistent with the law, ”she told members of the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday.

The committee considered her nomination along with two others nominated to the Department of Education: Elizabeth Brown, who was appointed General Counsel, and Obama veteran Roberto Rodríguez, who was nominated as Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development.

But most of the committee’s questions centered on Lhamon.

While Democratic Senators praised their experiences and positions on issues such as racial justice, Republican committee members urged Lhamon on her previous criticism of Trump-era guidelines and reliance on non-binding guidelines that did not go through a formal public comment process when they previously took the 2013 post until 2017.

“I am not convinced that Ms. Lhamon understands, or at least appreciates, the limits of her authority,” said senior Senator Richard Burr, RN.C., who was one of several Republicans who asked if Lhamon would seek public opinion in advance of regulations enacted for schools.

In her previous tenure at the agency, Lhamon signed two key guidelines: a policy that states that transgender students have the right to access school facilities such as changing rooms and toilets that match their gender identity; and another said that schools may violate state civil rights laws if they have significant racial differences in disciplinary sentences.

Both guidelines have been repealed by the Trump administration, and President Joe Biden has announced that they will be reinstated.

The Department of Education is following an order from Biden and is currently in a process of reviewing its policies and practices under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting gender discrimination in education. This includes a rule enacted by former Education Minister Betsy DeVos requiring K-12 schools, colleges and universities to respond to allegations of sexual assault and harassment by students.

Enforcing the rights of transgender students

Several Republican Senators asked Lhamon about the rights of transgender students under Title IX.

Republican attorneys general have challenged the Biden administration’s allegation that the law’s protection prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

And while the government decided that transgender girls should be allowed to play on girls’ sports teams, states have considered and passed a number of laws that would prevent them from doing unfair physical advantage.

“I’ve fought for young girls for years and I hate it when we ruin this,” said Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, the former soccer coach at Auburn University. “I get more letters on Title IX and this transgender problem than anything else.”

He asked Lhamon if she agreed that putting “biological men” on women’s sports teams was discrimination.

Lhamon said Title IX should protect all students from discrimination and civil rights investigators should investigate any situation to ensure fairness.

She referred to a complaint made by a student from Ohio who uses a wheelchair and complained that his school would not allow him to participate in their athletics team.

“We found a way for this student to compete safely and completely as a member of the team,” she said. “I would want to bring this lens to work in any athletics context so that we can find a way not to discriminate against the student who wants to be on the team.”

Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Said there are very few transgender students asking to participate in sports teams and that the goal of the Republicans’ public relations campaign is not to admit women’s sports protect but “marginalize these children the people fear them and let them see as a threat.”

Ensuring fairness in investigations under Title IX

If this is confirmed, Lhamon assures Senators that, until she is replaced, she will enforce the DeVos-era sexual assault and harassment rule, which has been heavily criticized.

She made that assurance after Senator Bill Cassidy, R-La., Read one of Lhamon’s May 2020 tweets saying that DeVos-era regulations moved the country back to a time “when it was permissible.” was to rape and sexually harass students ”. with impunity. “

Although she said these regulations “weakened the intent of Title IX, as Congress wrote,” Lhamon said her responsibility was “to enforce the law as it exists” and that the DeVos Rule be effective is until it is replaced.

DeVos introduced the rule in response to concerns that previous Obama-era regulations did not do enough to provide fairness to the accused students. However, survivors’ advocacy groups say the new rules do not do enough to protect complainants, and school administrations say it is cumbersome to enforce.

Promote racial justice in school discipline

Several Democratic senators, including Minnesota Murphy and Senator Tina Smith, asked Lhamon about efforts to lower disproportionately high disciplinary rates for people of color.

Lhamon said it was “crucial” to reintroduce the guidelines on the issue. The 2014 guidelines that she signed discouraged the use of exclusion disciplines such as suspensions and expulsions.

“We are pushing children out of school,” Lhamon said on Tuesday. “You lose education time.”

She pointed out that racial justice in school discipline was one of the very first issues the Civil Rights Office addressed in enforcing segregation agreements in schools after its inception.

“That it continues to this day means that we as a country haven’t got our arms around it,” she said.

Republicans asked few questions about the disciplinary guidelines at the hearing, even while federal Republican lawmakers across the country debated the nature of racism and systemic discrimination.

DeVos overturned the 2014 discipline guidelines on the recommendation of a national school safety commission formed after a school shooting in 2018 in Parkland, Florida.

Republicans had criticized the guidelines as overburdening the federal government, saying they were too prescriptive and could lead to disruptive classroom environments.

Civil rights groups, however, called this a long overdue move to ensure fair treatment of color students and students with disabilities.

Lhamon noted Tuesday that the majority of complaints the Civil Rights Bureau are handling relate to fair treatment of students with disabilities, including concerns about schools’ reliance on restraint and seclusion.

She also said it was important for the agency to ensure a thorough and publicly available collection of data on issues such as discipline and access to advanced courses in order to monitor schools’ progress in ensuring justice.

After the hearing, Chairwoman Senator Patty, Washington D, called for a swift endorsement of all three candidates.

“Unfortunately, the previous government has taken a huge step backwards when it comes to helping and protecting students,” said Murray.