A Long Island school district on Tuesday sued New York State’s Education Department after the state blocked the district from requiring its students to use bathrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth.
In a federal lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of New York, the Massapequa School District said a recent order from the department demanded that the school district “permit biological males to enter intimate spaces with biological females.”
The Trump administration contends that the civil rights of girls are violated when school policies recognize transgender identities, and the lawsuit by Massapequa could be aimed at once again drawing the federal government into the fray on Long Island.
School policies that allow students to use bathrooms and participate in athletic programs based on their gender identity have animated political fights around the country. In September, the Supreme Court ruled that a transgender boy must be allowed to use a boys’ bathroom at a South Carolina public school after the state sought to bar him. (The court stressed that the order was temporary while the student pursued a challenge to the state law, and did not address the merits of the case.)
During Mr. Trump’s second term, his Education Department has targeted school districts across the country for allowing students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity, in what it says are violations of Title IX, a provision of federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions that receive government funding.
The department has threatened to withhold or has pulled federal funding from districts in New York City, Colorado, Virginia, and more states over their bathroom and sports participation policies. The Massapequa School District said it had adopted its policy to comply with Title IX and “to avoid any enforcement action” from the Education Department, citing the lost funding around the country.
A spokesman for New York’s Education Department declined to comment.
The dispute in Massapequa, a district with roughly 6,500 students, centers on a policy that the local school board approved last month. It is just the latest imbroglio over national cultural issues in Nassau County, whose legislature is controlled by Republicans and whose Republican county executive, Bruce Blakeman, has embraced President Trump.
The policy, passed Sept. 9, required students to use restrooms and locker rooms that aligned with their sex assigned at birth, and offered to provide gender-neutral facilities upon request “to ensure that all students’ needs are respectfully addressed.”
Under state human rights law, denying someone the use of facilities because of gender identity is considered discrimination. The New York Civil Liberties Union challenged the district’s policy this month and asked the state to overturn the rule on behalf of a transgender student in Massapequa.
Betty A. Rosa, the state education commissioner, last week blocked the district from enforcing the rule. In reference to the N.Y.C.L.U.’s appeal, she wrote that the student would “suffer irreparable harm” if the policy was allowed to continue, noting that the student had said it would be “humiliating and isolating” to be forced to use a gender-neutral locker room.
“State law and guidance on the rights of transgender individuals is unequivocal,” Ms. Rosa added.
Massapequa’s Board of Education said in a statement on Wednesday that the state had forced the district to violate federal law.
“We’re seeking a court ruling to confirm that our resolution complies with all laws, shielding our students and taxpayers from further legal risks while protecting the dignity and well-being of all students,” the statement said.
Emma Hulse, education counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that the district’s lawsuit was “baseless” and that Massapequa’s school board was “more interested in bullying students and families” than in “ensuring a sound and equitable education for all students.”
The suit is not the first high-profile clash this year between the state and school leaders in Massapequa, a middle-class hamlet on Long Island’s South Shore where most voters supported Mr. Trump in last year’s election.
The district refused to follow a state requirement to abandon its decades-old “Chief” mascot, creating a remarkable standoff that caught the attention of Mr. Trump. The education secretary, Linda McMahon, came to Massapequa High School in the spring to support the district’s effort to keep the mascot.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
Troy Closson is a Times education reporter focusing on K-12 schools.
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