Trump administration ends some civil rights settlements backing transgender students

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday it was terminating resolution agreements backing transgender students that prior administrations had reached ​with some school districts.

The U.S. Education Department said it was ‌terminating six resolution agreements reached through what it called the manipulation of Title IX. The Title IX civil-rights statute bars the denial of benefits or discrimination in education “on ​the basis of sex.”

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Since taking office, Trump has cracked down on ​schools and colleges with executive orders and threats to freeze ⁠federal funds over issues like transgender rights, climate programs, diversity initiatives and pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s ​war in Gaza.

Transgender people in particular have faced increasing limitations as Trump has ​issued a series of executive actions targeting their rights and stated in a directive that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes: male and female.

The Education Department said ​its Office for Civil Rights will no longer monitor or enforce deals ​reached with the Sacramento City Unified School District in California, the Cape Henlopen School ‌District ⁠in Delaware, the Fife School District in Washington state, the Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania, the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in California and Taft College in California.

The school districts and the college did not immediately ​respond to requests for ​comment.

The Education Department ⁠statement did not elaborate on the specifics of the terminations, which were reported earlier by the New York ​Times.

Those civil-rights settlements had aimed at ensuring the rights ​of transgender ⁠students to equal opportunity to an education, the newspaper reported.

“Today, the Trump Administration is removing the unnecessary and unlawful burdens that prior Administrations imposed on schools ⁠in ​its relentless pursuit of a radical transgender agenda,” ​Education Department official Kimberly Richey said.

Trump’s crackdown on transgender rights has been condemned by LGBT ​groups and human-rights advocates.

Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis

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Kanishka Singh

Thomson Reuters

Kanishka Singh is a breaking news reporter for Reuters in Washington DC, who primarily covers US politics and national affairs in his current role. His past breaking news coverage has spanned across a range of topics like the Black Lives Matter movement; the US elections; the 2021 Capitol riots and their follow up probes; the Brexit deal; US-China trade tensions; the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan; the COVID-19 pandemic; and a 2019 Supreme Court verdict on a religious dispute site in his native India.

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