Parents Fight Back as Capistrano Unified Forces Gender-Based Rooming on Students

Parents outraged as district enforces overnight accommodations based on gender identity, not biological sex.

Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) is under fire for its controversial policy forcing students to share sleeping quarters based on “gender identity” rather than biological sex. The district now faces a federal civil rights complaint, joining Los Angeles and San Francisco Unified School Districts, along with the California Department of Education, in allegations of violating Title IX protections.

The lawsuit, filed by the California Justice Center and the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies, centers around an upcoming overnight field trip for CUSD fifth graders at the Pali Institute in the San Bernardino Mountains. Under current plans, students will be assigned sleeping arrangements based solely on gender identity, without parental notification. If parents do find out, they are reportedly barred from requesting alternative accommodations.

“California’s schools are sending a clear message to parents: you don’t have the right to know if your child is sharing a sleeping space with an adult or another student of the opposite sex,” said Julie Hamill, President of the California Justice Center.

This is not a hypothetical concern. In 2022, young girls from Weaver Elementary School in Los Alamitos were reportedly forced to sleep in cabins with male counselors who identified as nonbinary. The school claims it is “unable” to confirm details of the situation, but the Pali Institute’s assistant director acknowledged that staff are housed “in cabins they identify with” in accordance with California law.

“No parent should feel the way I feel after knowing what could have happened to my daughter,” said concerned parent Suzy Johnson. “It’s awful that children had to even experience this in fifth-grade camp. If I was aware of it… I would have kept my children home.”

Bob Eitel, President of the Defense of Freedom Institute, condemned the policy, stating, “Schools should not require a fifth-grade girl to sacrifice her dignity and privacy to accommodate the gender identity preference of another student as a condition of participating in a school activity. To do so would simply erase ‘sex’ from Title IX.”

CUSD’s website acknowledges that Title IX was enacted to ensure equal treatment of male and female students, protecting them from discrimination based on sex. However, recent attempts by the Biden administration to redefine Title IX to include gender identity were blocked by a federal judge in June 2024. Chief Judge Danny Reeves ruled that the Department of Education’s interpretation “conflicts with the plain language of Title IX and therefore exceeds its authority.”

This legal precedent suggests that CUSD and other districts enforcing gender-based rooming policies may face an uphill battle in court.

“Our public schools have a duty to uphold Title IX and protect children’s safety and privacy. We are fighting to restore those protections,” Hamill emphasized.