OASD changes Title IX language to align with new federal policy, protect funding

With America caught in an ongoing culture war and polarized political climate, Title IX has become the subject of heated debate in recent months, and Oshkosh schools have not been unaffected by disputes over how far these protections should extend. Last August, the Oshkosh Board of Education amended the district’s Title IX policy to expand its definitions of sexual harassment and assault and to include anti-discrimination protections on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. These changes came in response to regulations passed by the Biden administration in April 2024, but, following a ruling in federal court which struck down these policies, and the release of a new Title IX mandate by the Trump administration, the board voted at the end of January to return to previous policy language that does not include gender identity and sexual orientation. 

Board president Elizabeth Wyman explains that the district received strong encouragement to adapt to federal guidelines. 

“If we didn’t, they could have potentially taken our federal funding away, and that was the main reason that we switched to that,” she said.

The district receives approximately $7.1 million in federal funding, $5.3 million of which is directly related to Title IX. Title IX was originally created in 1972 to ensure females have equal access to educational and extracurricular opportunities at institutions receiving federal funding. More recently, the protections have become the subject of debate arising from the proposal to address other forms of gender discrimination, particularly against transgender individuals, in the policy, according to social studies teacher Daniel Lewis.

“My best guess for why the controversy is happening would be transgender participation in sports. That’s the thing I’ve heard the most,” he said. “It gets into gender and sports and access to it. How do you make it equal for everyone? It’s going to be tough to do that sometimes.”

The Oshkosh Area School District (OASD) attests that, as it adapts to changing federal regulations, its dedication to ensuring the safety and success of all students remains unshaken. District Director of Community Engagement and Equity Anthony Miller released a statement on behalf of the OASD.

“Our practice has always been focused on supporting and protecting all students, and our current policy aligns with this commitment to equity and inclusivity,” he stated. 

Laura Ackmann, chair of the Winnebago County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national parental rights group that urged the district not to adopt the Biden administration’s Title IX guidelines last summer, believes that the changes the district made to its Title IX policy last summer were antithetical to the original purpose of the protections.

“This isn’t about not wanting transgender students to have rights. We do believe that they're protected under all the Oshkosh policies, but Title IX was specific to protecting women and girls in sports and education, and when you start adding other people onto that, it defeats the purpose of what Title IX was originally there for,” she said. “When we spoke up against it, we were really speaking out to support the 4,500 female students in the Oshkosh school system.”

Although securing federal funding has been a major motivation for the board to amend its Title IX policy, the changes adopted by the board last August also show acknowledgement of the struggles of many students belonging to marginalized communities. While the board has not needed to become involved in any incidents regarding harassment or bullying, Wyman affirms that it has an important role to play in establishing protections across the district and helping students feel comfortable getting assistance with this sort of concern.

“We're very much aware of bullying situations,” she said. “That was one of the primary reasons we went to the new Title IX policy, was bullying for sexual orientation or pretty much any other reason.”

Sophomore Veronica Holladay, a member of Oshkosh West’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance, speaks to the challenges she regularly faces, like students and teachers addressing her with her birth name or using the wrong pronouns to describe her. She feels that more needs to be done to show people the importance of respecting others’ gender identity and sexual orientation, and to prevent bullying on this basis.

“I think people know the school doesn’t take it seriously,” she said. “That’s why people say such terrible things. That’s why I hear people call their friends homophobic slurs as a joke, because people know that we tolerate that sort of negativity and that sort of discrimination.”

Much of the national debate over the expansion of Title IX policy regarding sports centers on concerns that transgender females could have an unfair advantage in women’s leagues or cause privacy invasions in changing rooms. Junior Kiara Deppiesse, who is on West’s tennis and track teams, believes most students would welcome transgender athletes to their sports teams, but sees potential friction that inclusivity measures in this area might create.

“I think there might be some uncomfortability for those people who aren’t fully open to the idea of transgender people,” she said.

Ackmann recognizes the risks that expanded Title IX protections could pose to students’ psychological security.  

“If you have a transgender student who’s a biological male, if they are in girls’ private spaces like a bathroom or a locker room, there can be exposure obviously to the male genitalia, which can, for the girls, make them feel uncomfortable or feel like their locker rooms or showers are not a safe place for them,” she said.

Wyman rejects the suggestion that the board’s recent Title IX changes concerned students’ use of restrooms or other private spaces.

“A lot of people certainly wanted to make it about locker rooms; they wanted to make it about bathrooms, and nothing could have been further from the truth,” she said. “Every school has a separate bathroom, and people that want to use that bathroom or separate changing room in the locker room are more than able to do that. That is not what the issue was. We didn’t have men going into the women’s locker room or vice versa.”

Many within the district and community observed minimal change to the student experience following the expansion of Title IX protections last summer, and Ackmann expects that reverting to the district’s previous policy will also have a minor effect on students.

“They have policies that support no bullying and no harassment, so I don’t believe putting the Biden-Harris Title IX in and then taking it out would have had any negative impact on the transgender community,” she said.

Noting that the district’s dedication to non-discrimination has remained steadfast throughout the debate over its Title IX policy, Wyman agrees that most students and staff would have been largely unaffected by last summer’s amendments and the re-adoption of 2020 regulations. In fact, the updates made to Title IX policy last summer were not enacted at three district schools named in a lawsuit filed to prevent the implementation of the policy revisions. These schools were covered in exclusions from the updated policy because they met a threshold of membership with Moms for Liberty, one of the groups that brought the case, according to Wyman.

“There was a lot of controversy because there were some states that were for it, some states that were against it. We had some schools that went to the new regulation, some that didn’t go to the new regulation,” she said. “So now, we’re all back under the same policy.”

Holladay is frustrated by the controversy surrounding the protection of individuals within the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups amid the current political climate.

“I think that it comes down to how people still seem to inherently believe that it’s a choice, that it’s something one can control. The only thing a person can control is whether or not they express themselves and live their lives to their fullest extent,” she said. “They can’t control if they feel that way, so there’s no reason why all other groups should have this sort of protection but queer people should be left out.”

At the same time, Holladay believes that anti-harassment policies alone are insufficient to counter bullying and discrimination, and instead thinks that better education about gender and sexuality are necessary to support the LGBTQ+ community. When taking health class last year, for instance, she noticed that coverage of queer identities often used outdated information that would have left much room for misunderstanding of these topics and done little to counter prejudice.

“A lot of hatred and a lot of acts of hatred and a lot of acts of violence come from a lack of understanding, and the lack of understanding comes from a lack of education,” she said. “I really think the lack of awareness in our country has created a general lack of critical thinking, just a lack of people thinking for themselves and people thinking about what really does matter.” 

Deppiesse agrees that more can be done within Oshkosh’s schools to promote a climate of inclusion.

“I always think there’s more room for improvement,” she said. “It’s kind of been inherent for forever that men and male students have inherent opportunities to do certain things or have leadership roles, so I think it’s important to keep those opportunities for female students at school, especially because we’re here to learn, we’re here to grow.”

As the board has responded to policy changes on the federal level, it has also worked to involve the local community in decisions regarding its own Title IX protections, especially before expanding the policy last summer, according to Wyman. 

“We had a meeting at Alberta Kimball, and we knew it was going to be attended with vigor, so we listened,” she said. “I believe it was an hour and a half listening session where we listened to community members. We had people sign up to say if they were for Title IX, against Title IX, and we listened to as many as we could.”

Ackmann, who believes that the decision to revert to its previous Title IX policy reflects the general will of parents and the community, agrees that the board has made an effort to consider the perspective of the community.

“They do talk about it in their board meetings, how they want to be inclusive to the parents and the community, and how they want to build those relationships, so I do think they try,” she said. “You know, I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but when they speak up about it, I think they’re genuine. And when we’ve gone to speak, most times they have allowed everyone to say what was on their mind.”

While Ackmann says that she and Moms for Liberty are more supportive of the Title IX policy that the district reverted to last month, she notes that the policy still includes protections on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation which violate the original intent of the statute and the Trump administration’s recent mandate.

“In general, we support the policy. However, there is still gender identity language in that which still allows for a male to be in female safe spaces, so we do not support that,” she said.

While debates over the limits of Title IX will likely continue to play out through presidential enforcement of these protections, Lewis says that Congress and the nation’s court system will have a critical role in settling these questions. 

“It would have to be an act of Congress to change it,” he said. “I don’t see that happening, so right now it’s going to be how the courts interpret Title IX. There’s been a lot of Title IX case law, but it’s not about transgender access, so it’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out in the courts.”

by Aria Boehler

Published March 17th, 2025

Oshkosh West Index Volume 121 Issue VI