Recently, President Trump's administration has launched a federal investigation into Washington's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), led by Chris Reykdal, over allegations that the state pressured the La Center School District to adopt a gender inclusion policy that violates federal laws, including Title IX, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment.
The probe, announced on April 14, 2025, centers on a years-long dispute involving the 1,800-student district's refusal to proactively ask students for preferred pronouns, a policy the state deemed discriminatory in February 2025. La Center's superintendent, Peter Rosenkranz, welcomed the investigation, accusing OSPI of bullying the district with threats to withhold funding. OSPI's spokesperson, Katy Payne, defended the state's policies, arguing they align with federal protections for transgender students. This clash, intensified by Trump's January 2025 executive orders restricting transgender policies in schools, underscores a growing federal-state divide over gender inclusivity, with La Center caught between state mandates and federal funding risks.
President Trump has relentlessly been a defender of female sports, recognizing the biological realities that ensure fairness and safety for female athletes. On February 5, 2025, coinciding with National Girls and Women in Sports Day, President Trump signed the No Men in Women's Sports Executive Order. The order is a landmark action that bans biological males from competing in female sports categories. This order, titled Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports Executive Order, directs federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, to enforce Title IX—the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in education by prohibiting schools from allowing biological males to participate in women's sports. Non-compliant schools risk losing their federal funding, which is a powerful incentive to uphold fairness.
Executive Order 14168 also mandates immediate enforcement actions against schools and athletic associations that deny women single-sex sports and locker rooms. This action ensures that female athletes are protected from unsafe and unfair situations, and it also ensures their own spaces and comfortability. The Trump administration has also tasked the Department of Education to investigate violations and even directed the Secretary of State to push for changes within the International Olympic Committee to maintain single-sex competition globally. At the signing ceremony, President Trump was joined by over 60 Female athletes, coaches, and advocates, including former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines. "From now on, women's sports will be only for women," President Trump declared, signaling an end to what he called the "war on women's sports."
However, President Trump's commitment to this significant issue did not start in 2025. During his first term, he voiced his concerns about the erosion of Title IX protections, criticizing the Obama and Biden administrations for policies that blurred the lines of biological sex. On his first day in office in 2025, President Trump signed an executive order establishing a government-wide recognition of only two genders- male and female. This laid the groundwork for his sports policy. One of his campaign promises was to keep men out of women's sports. This resonated deeply with a 2023 Gallup survey, which shows that nearly 70% of Americans opposed transgender athletes competing in sports aligned with their gender identity.
All of this ties into the Kennewick School District's complaint. The complaint is a direct response to Washington State's radical policies, which mirror the Biden administration's now-vacated Title IX rewrite that allowed transgender students to compete based on gender identity. The district argues that these policies, including allowing biological males in female sports, violate President Trump's executive orders and jeopardize their federal funding, which is 10% of their budget. Furthermore, Washington's mandated transgender policy (3211/3211P) forces schools to use preferred pronouns and conceal students' gender identities from parents, which withholds critical family communication. This clashes with federal Title IX protections and parental rights that President Trump has vowed to restore. The district faces an impossible choice: comply with Washington State law and risk federal funding, or follow President Trump's federal mandates and face retaliation from the state. Servicing around 18,000 students, Kennewick argues this dilemma threatens their ability to maintain a safe, non-discriminatory environment for students. Their complaint echoes the stories of female athletes such as University of Wyoming volleyball player Macey Boggs, who was forced to compete against a male athlete, and Roanoke College swimmer Lilly Mullins, who spoke of the emotional toll of such policies. The battle over female sports has been brewing for years. Title IX, enacted in 1972, revolutionized opportunities for female athletes by ensuring equal access to sports in federally funded schools. However, the Obama and Biden administrations pushed interpretations that redefined "sex" to include gender identity, which allowed biological males to compete in women's sports and have access to female facilities such as locker rooms. These policies sparked outrage, with high-profile cases like Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas, a biological male, dominated women's competitions and fueled public debate. Many have fought back. Since 2020, 27 states have enacted laws or policies banning transgender athletes from female sports, reflecting widespread public support for fairness. In 2024, federal courts struck down Biden's Title IX rewrite, affirming that ignoring biological differences deprives women of equal opportunities. President Trump's executive order builds on these victories, codifying protections and empowering schools like Kennewick to resist state overreach.
Washington's failure to pass proposals restricting transgender athletes from competing against biological girls further underscores the urgency of the Kennewick School District's Title IX complaint. On Monday, April 21, 2025, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rejected measures that would have protected female athletes by limiting participation in girls' sports to biological females, leaving schools like Kennewick vulnerable to state policies prioritizing gender identity over fairness. These rejected proposals, which aimed to align with President Trump's executive orders banning biological males from female sports, highlight the state's defiance of federal mandates. Kennewick's legal challenge argues that such policies not only violate Title IX but also force districts into an untenable position, risking federal funding while facing state retaliation, all at the expense of female athletes' safety and opportunities.
The Kennewick School District's stand is a microcosm of President Trump's border fight to reclaim America's institutions from what he calls "radical left transgender ideology." President Trump's administration is ensuring accountability by halting funding to states that allow men in women's sports and forming a Title IX Special Investigations Team. His supporters see this as a promise kept and a defense of biological reality, parental rights, and the dreams of female athletes who deserve a level playing field. As Kennewick continues to take on Washington's elites, they are backed by a president who has made fairness in women's sports a national priority. This is a fight for the future of our daughters, our schools, and the America that President Trump is working to restore.
