Court ruling blocks new Title IX rules in dozens of SC schools
A court ruling in Kansas temporarily blocking new Title IX rules applies to some schools in South Carolina, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (File/Getty Images)
A federal court ruling in Kansas that temporarily blocks changes to the Biden administration’s new Title IX rules applies to more than two dozen South Carolina schools, Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Wednesday.
More than half of all U.S. states, including South Carolina, filed or joined multiple lawsuits in the wake of the administration’s rewrite of federal regulations that prohibit sex-based discrimination at schools that receive federal funding.
The new U.S. Department of Education Title IX rules, which are set to take effect Aug. 1, aims to protect LGBTQ+ students by extending the definition of sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
“This means biological boys and men that identify as female will be allowed to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. Students and teachers will also be required to use others’ ‘preferred pronouns,'” Wilson’s office said in a statement announcing the Kansas ruling’s impact on some South Carolina schools.
The Palmetto State was not a party to that lawsuit, which Alaska, Utah and Wyoming joined.
But the ruling earlier this month by a federal judge in Kansas applies to schools in South Carolina where students or their parents are members of organizations that did join that case, said Wilson’s spokesman Robert Kittle.
The 42-page list of schools around the nation, filed in court this week, includes at least 25 K-12 and colleges in South Carolina.
Among them are the state’s two largest public universities — the University of South Carolina and Clemson University — as well as some smaller public colleges, including The Citadel, South Carolina State and Coastal Carolina. Only USC’s main campus in Columbia is on the list.
Five of South Carolina’s technical colleges are listed.
At least nine private South Carolina colleges are on the list, including Charleston Southern, Benedict, Bob Jones, and Furman.
As for the younger grades, three public high schools and three private schools are included.
The schools all had students or parents who are members of Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization; Female Athletes United; or Moms for Liberty, a conservative parental rights group founded in Florida.
Kittle called it “unusual” but not unheard of for a court ruling to apply in states when the state is not directly involved in the case.
South Carolina is still awaiting a ruling in its own case, filed alongside several other states in Alabama, against the proposed Title IX changes.
South Carolina also is among 24 states that have passed laws preventing transgender student-athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
The Biden administration has yet to finalize a separate rule that would ban this practice.
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