DVSD Board of Education approves Title IX changes, following Trump pressure

On Thursday, March 19, the Delaware Valley School District Board of Education reviewed the district’s Title IX policy due to pressure from the Trump administration, which reverted back to 2020 policies limiting sexual harassment claims to those based on sex assigned at birth

The meeting was held in the Delaware Valley High School Learning Commons to accommodate the large number of people attending the evening session. The board also had Brian Taylor from King, Spry, Herman & Faul, LLC, in attendance to answer legal questions from the perspective of an attorney representing the district.

Attendees express support for transgender students

While there was some support for changing the policy and following the government order, most of the attendees were there to try to convince the board not to comply with the order, therefore maintaining full support of the transgender students in the school districts.

During the first period of public comment, many people stood at the podium to address the board regarding the legality of the order. Comments ranged from letters from affected students and Rep. Tarah Probst to full speeches aimed directly towards LGBTQ+ students. Many people suggested that the order violates the 14th Amendment and does more to put students in harm’s way than to protect them.

In the letter from Rep. Probst, she said, “There is a separation of church and state for a reason. Set aside any ill-will feelings you may have about certain populations and remember that your job is to consider the well-being of all of the student body, not picking and choosing who you think is deserving.” These comments were met with much applause from many of those in attendance.

Board pledges to continue to take care of students

After hearing arguments from community members, the board had a brief discussion of some of the points raised by the crowd. When questioning Taylor, the board was mostly met with the point that, as an attorney, it’s not up to him to decide what may violate these policies. Rather, that’s where the issue would be taken to court, and a jury would make the final decision.

During the discussion, Vice President Christine Agron said, “We’re going to continue to take care of our students the way we have always taken care of our students. There are conversations happening with affected students because their day-to-day life will change, and if we vote to approve these policies, I certainly expect all seven of our schools to follow the policies as written.”

District Superintendent Dr. Brian Blaum also spoke on the changes in policy and said, “The policies that are up for discussion tonight are about discrimination. Bathrooms and locker rooms are discriminatory by nature. They’re separated by gender, that’s discriminatory. Some of the practices that the district engages in regarding recognizing our trans students in particular are not discriminatory; they’re simply in recognition of our student body.”

Board agrees to remove gender identity from discrimination policies

Following this discussion, the board unanimously voted to comply with the order and remove gender identity from its discrimination policies. The decision was met with outbursts from the audience as they left, including shouts of “Shame,” “Good use of my tax dollars” and “Kids are gonna die.”

After the agenda concluded for the evening, the board members discussed the changes to the Title IX policy in more detail. Carl Will asked whether allowing students to change their names in PowerSchool, even with parental consent, would violate the now-approved policies. He was told that questions like these have to be decided by a jury, since it is still a legal matter.

Background

In January 2025, the U.S. Department of Education confirmed it would revert back to 2020 Title IX policies which limited sexual harassment claims to those based on sex assigned at birth. In 2024, under the Biden administration, the policy was broadened to encompass sex stereotyping, gender identity and gender expression discrimination.