The Ongoing Battle of the All Gender Bathroom

Last school year's controversial installment, the all-gender bathroom, is an ongoing fight between DPS and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). East High School announced the bathroom on the second floor, where the female-designated bathroom had been, on its official website on January 3, 2024. “These restrooms serve those who may feel uncomfortable in gender-specific facilities and align with our values of supporting every student” (“East High School » Introducing New All Gender Restrooms”). Soon after, on January 28, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights initiated a Title IX investigation (U.S. Department of Education).

Originally, the female-designated bathroom was the only all-gender bathroom, leaving three male-designated bathrooms and only two female-designated bathrooms. The Trump Administration’s OCR found this bathroom in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX completely prohibits sex-discrimination in all educational spaces and programs (school, sports, etc.).

In response to the investigation, East High School also converted the previously male-designated bathroom to an all-gender restroom in August 2025, when students returned to school. However, this change was not enough, and the OCR continued to claim Title-IX was being violated. Then, on August 28, the OCR released an ultimatum, giving Denver Public Schools 10 days, rather than the OCR Case Processing Manual’s typical 90 days, to conform to certain requirements, or “risk imminent enforcement action”. The requirements include the following:

• Convert all-gender restrooms back to “sex-designated” multi-stall restrooms.

• Remove policies that let students use “intimate facilities based on 'gender identity,' not biological sex”.

• Make an announcement to all DPS schools saying that schools “must provide intimate facilities that protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of its students and are comparably accessible to each sex”.

• “Adopt biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ in all policies and practices related to Title IX”.

(“U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights Finds Denver Public Schools Violated Title IX”)

Acting Assistant Secretary for the OCR stated, “Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX.”

Alex Marrero, the Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, has made multiple statements regarding the issue. In his most recent letter, DPS Responds to OCR Regarding Alleged Title IX Violation, Marrero expresses DPS’s desire to “discuss resolutions”. So far, DPS is not backing down despite threats, and denies the claim that the restrooms are in violation of Title IX. “The decision to create all-gender restrooms was centered around feedback from students – including those who identify as LGBTQ+ and those who do not – seeking more private space with higher partitions and sealed sections between doors. Making this change at East served the needs and interests of many students in the East community. Students spoke up, and we listened. We will continue to stand with our students and for them against this onslaught of anti-LBGTQ+ sentiment,” Marrero asserts.

Principal Walker also agreed that it was not exclusively one group reaching out that wanted the bathrooms. Students reportedly wanted bathrooms for many other reasons. Some reasons included privacy concerns, changing for sports, and long single-stall bathroom wait times. The only real change to the bathrooms is the stalls, which now reach 12 feet into the air, and gaps on the sides of the stalls being covered. “This is about what our kids, all of our kids, express. And there will be some kids who are not interested and that's fine too,” Walker notes, “I don't have any interest in telling people what is right or wrong. We teach kids to be critical thinkers and to think for themselves.”

The conflict has yet to be resolved, as neither the Office of Civil Rights nor Denver Public Schools is conceding. East High School students have largely adapted to the changes, despite whether or not they agree with them. Still, the question remains: how far will either side go before yielding? Will the Office of Civil Rights be forced to back off of DPS, or will our school district surrender under the pressure of the so-called risk of “imminent enforcement action”? Only time will tell.