(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Salem, Wis. — The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) has filed a Title IX complaint against Westosha Central High School District, alleging the district engaged in sex-based discrimination against female students by allowing a biological male student to use the girls’ locker room. The complaint, submitted to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, outlines allegations that two female students, referred to as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, suffered academic penalties, privacy violations, and emotional distress due to the school’s policy.
Concerns Over Privacy and Safety
According to the complaint, the issue began in December 2024, when Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, both students at Westosha Central High School, discovered they were required to share the girls’ locker room with an older male student who identifies as transgender. The students allege that the presence of the male student made them uncomfortable, forcing them to either change in cramped toilet stalls—often resulting in tardiness—or avoid using the locker room altogether.
Both girls reported their concerns to school officials and their parents, but according to WILL, their complaints were ignored or dismissed. One gym teacher allegedly told the girls that excluding the male student would be considered “bullying.”
Academic Penalties for Privacy Concerns
The complaint further states that Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 suffered academic penalties due to their efforts to avoid changing in the locker room with the male student. Jane Doe 1 reportedly received multiple unexcused absences after refusing to attend gym class under the conditions, while Jane Doe 2 was repeatedly marked tardy for waiting to change in a stall—leading to an “F” grade in gym class.
On one occasion, Jane Doe 1 was allegedly berated by a teacher after attempting to wait out gym class in a nearby restroom, fearing she would be penalized if she explained her reasoning.
Westosha’s Response and Alleged Retaliation
After repeated complaints from parents, Westosha officials initially assured parents that “a plan was in place” to relocate the male student to another changing area. However, according to the complaint, when students returned from winter break in January 2025, the male student was still using the girls’ locker room.
Tensions escalated further when the male student allegedly called Jane Doe 1 a derogatory name after she and a friend entered the locker room. Jane Doe 1’s mother reported the incident to the Kenosha Police Department, whose school resource officer later stated that he had not been informed of the locker room controversy despite the district’s claims that it had conducted an internal investigation.
WILL’s Legal Arguments Under Title IX
Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational institutions, includes protections against sexual harassment, which it defines as “unwelcome conduct that is severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive, effectively denying a person equal access to education.” WILL argues that Westosha’s failure to protect female students from involuntary exposure in a locker room setting constitutes such a violation.
The law firm further claims that Westosha officials misled families by stating that “no reports of inappropriate locker room behaviors” had been made—despite receiving multiple complaints.
Call for Federal Investigation
In its complaint, WILL is requesting that the Department of Education conduct a full investigation into Westosha’s handling of the situation and impose corrective measures to ensure that female students’ rights to privacy and equal educational access are upheld.
Westosha Central High School has yet to publicly respond to the complaint. The case has ignited a wider debate over gender identity policies in schools, parental rights, and the balance between inclusivity and privacy in shared facilities.
WILL Associate Counsel, Lauren Greuel, stated, “When schools like Westosha force girls into an inadequate choice between exposing themselves to a male student or academic penalties, they abandon all common-sense and their core mission. The law requires protections for girls to have the same educational opportunities as their male peers. The decision to punish these girls for protecting themselves must be promptly investigated by the Department of Education. We ask the department to consider the allegations in our complaint and quickly remedy these unlawful policies and practices.” Former Westosha parent, Nicholas Puchter, stated, “Parents send their kids to school so they can learn in a safe environment, but that’s not what happened here. My daughter was punished for standing up for her own privacy and safety. The district’s misplaced priorities left us no choice but to leave the school.”
District Administrator John Gendron told KCE Thursday evening “Since December 20, 2024, no male student has been permitted to use the female locker room. This practice is currently in place and will continue moving forward.”
What’s Next?
If the Department of Education finds that Westosha violated Title IX, the district could face federal penalties, including funding restrictions or mandated policy changes. Meanwhile, the controversy is likely to fuel ongoing discussions about the legal and ethical implications of gender policies in public schools.
This is a developing story, and further updates will follow as the investigation unfolds. Kenosha County Eye first broke this story. This issue has been covered on Fox News.
62 Responses
For sure, don’t for any increases in taxes for westosha. They will use it for lawyers. Let them get that money from the unions !
They already fucked us over with the ridiculous addition
Too bad the DOE is about to get dismantled so there will be no penalties for this. This is what the US has come to? Thanks Biden and the rest of you libtards.
You must be the most dim-witted member of the MAGA Cult. This has nothing to do with Biden.
It is Trump who dismantled the Department of Education. He signed the executive order today. There is no one working at the DOE anymore. There is no one left to investigate the complaint.
Thats a bit dramatic for sure!
Biden is the idiot that allowed all this bullshit to begin in the first place. And Tump just withheld MILLIONS from colleges, not the Department of Education. Get educated you ignorant fuck!
https://fortune.com/2025/03/19/trump-upenn-federal-funds-transgender-swimming-program/
Biden didn’t do anything. It was the Obama wannabes that were surrounding Joey diapers.
The DOE was laced with fraud, it needs to be shut down.
Try again. It hasn’t been dismantled yet.Trump just wrote the order today and Congress has to be the one to fully close it . It was Biden’s admin that allowed students in bathrooms that are not their biological gender
Your a complete idiot, this is what your bullshit BIDEN administration did, what a shit show this has caused everywhere…NOT PROTECTING WOMEN at all…allowing MEN in women’s locker rooms and forcing women to change in-front of them is ridiculous. WHO are they really protecting..all of those teachers & administration should be fired. Why not put some litter boxes in the locker rooms also for the furrys. Talk about a bunch of entitled idiots that want everyone to accept and agree to their craziness. DISGUSTING
The DOE is a part of this problem. Once it’s gone local and state jurisdictions will be free to handle these type situations. The DOE, if it hadn’t been disbanded, would have done nothing to alleviated such situations, just like they’ve been (not)doing all along. Trump’s actions now place such adjudications where they belong, with us.
If DOE is dismantled and states are allowed to make their own choices, then people who are against what happened at WCHS better think long and hard about who they are voting for in the upcoming Supreme Court race. Crawford will be a puppet for Tony Evers (who thinks mothers should be called inseminated persons), as will Jill Underly. They are being supported by the far left.
“He signed the executive order today. There is no one working at the DOE anymore. There is no one left to investigate the complaint.”
This country WISHES it would happen that fast!! Although “no working at the DOE” has been technically true for the past few decades. They’ve only been collecting massive salaries for doing nothing.
Typical liberal…trying to tell A story instead of THE story. Re-educate yourself on the facts! Biden DID rewrite title IX and the Dept of Ed has NOT been dismantled yet! Do your brain a favor and stop watching MSNBC.
Good
Bye bye Dept of Education! Won’t miss you, or your woke bs
Could you do us all a favor and educate yourself on what’s actually happening. Don’t call people out when you are completely wrong. I will give you a bit of advice. Stay away from legacy media. They only lie and use gaslighting and fearmongering.
This has nothing to do with the Department of education, this has to do was crazy MF allowed to work in and run schools. If it is found that they will fully lied and covered up their actions, there should be some provision in the law allowing them to be sued on a personal level instead of just the school district being liable. I’d love to see a lot like that on the books, it would sure get rid of a lot of these school system cover-ups we’ve been faced with lately.
This is a DOJ matter. They will enforce the new EO. DOE is not totally dismantled.
I thought of that, too. Biden allowed – championed, in fact – this kind of abuse of real girls to happen. Trump is rightfully dissolving the DOE, returning control to the States, and while that will take several months and the agreement of the House of Representatives to accomplish it, I don’t have any confidence that Gov Evers will have the moral intelligence to protect the girls. *** to the “Anonymous” who replied to this comment, here are the real facts. The DOE isn’t “gone” as of today, the day after the executive order was signed.
We shouldn’t have any confidence in Evers. He is all for all of this nonsense. Susan Crawford will run the same agenda as Evers and so will Jill Underly. Think about who you’re voting for people.
Investigation of this will proceed, whether DOE does it or another agency to whom this complaint will be turned over. I don’t think the Trump administration will let this complaint drop.
You know, you have no regard for the girls and what they went through? All you’re worried about is the taxpayer’s money? Shame on you!!!!!!!!! Go get em WILL!
Pretty sad to see how this was handled. That the one took priority over their girls safety physically or emotionally. The school continues its downhill slide, this adds to it. Good to see it’s being taken further and addressed as it should have been originally. Shame on Central, what a disgrace.
Well born a man and identify as a woman sounds like a personal problem to me , don’t make your problems the problems of others …..use the damn locker room you were genetically assigned….problem fuckin solved….is this so hard to figure out wtf
Until the past decade or so, it WAS(is) considered a mental illness. We need to go back to what it actually is, a severe case of mental illness.
And if he’s actually embarrassed to disrobe in front of the boys, which doesn’t seem to be the issue considering what we were told a couple of months about his use of “cream”, let HIM change in the bathroom stall and get docked for being tardy.
Whoa hold on here… Isn’t Trump doing away with this transgender BS?
He can try but if we keep electing “progressive” Democrats/communists/socialists in order to protect the right to kill babies, all this trans BS goes with it.
Exactly, this is why it’s so important not to elect a State Supreme Court Justice with a far left agenda, who’s getting millions of dollars for her campaign from George Soros and Governor Pritzker of Illinois. Seriously, why the hell would the governor of Illinois be contributing heavily? First of all, you can bet your ass it’s not his own money.
This happened before Trump took office. We now have a DOJ that actually cares about our girls.
Yes, he is. But several governors, including “our own” Evers, are outright defying it, and many institutes of “higher learning” are trying their best to weasel their way around it, including renaming their programs. The gov. of Maine famously told Trump to his face that she will “see him in court”.
They are allowing a junior peeping tom pervert in a girls locker room? Is chafing such a huge issue that lotion only needs to be applied with girls around? The adults permitting this a just as perverted. If the boy was older he could be charged with crimes against a minor.
My daughters will not be attending WCHS. Not only this garbage happening but all the “diversity” that has left KUSD for WCHS are committing hate crimes against white kids in the bathrooms. The “diversity” is committing battery against the quiet white kids that keep to themselves. It’s a real problem that parents know about but not enough of the public knows about.
What a shame!
Good! Make sure they stay in kusd with all the pedophiles.
Wisconsin, along with the other states in the seventh circuit court of appeals for the federal government, are required to allow students to use the restroom in locker room that assigns best with their gender identity under Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District.
Yes. I remember this and was shocked in 2016 when the court ruled with Ash Whitaker, a biological girl whose mother, a high school teacher in KUSD, filed the lawsuit. Just like what is continually happening now, that ruling was against all the other students – in this case, against the boys.
My son goes there and asked a girl to homecoming. Afterwards they went for a ride in his amc concord, and they parked. He was so
Surprised when he felt her penis, he had to go ask his biology teacher about it Monday, because she said it was normal.
I’m so sorry your son had to go through this, and I’m glad he talked to you! But please refer to this boy correctly, as a “he/her”.
Pronouns need to stop.
And yet we had Governor Tampon Tim come to Wisconsin to campaign for the dark blue candidate for state supreme court
I don’t fool around with no Oscar Meyer wiener,you must be sure that the girl is pure for the Funky Cold Medina!
As a parent and district taxpayer who sent my children to this school I’m extremely disappointed in the leadership and subsequently the gym teacher who followed through with the directives of the administrator and school board.
The administrator claims his hands are/were tied by law. While I don’t condone breaking laws, this law is so controversial and without any considerable downside to violate that Gendron should have stopped this from the get go and took the hit. He would have gotten a lot more support on that side than the side he chose.
Now instead of dealing with one “transgender” student and the possible legal actions he/she might have brought, Gendron has now exposed individual students, (and I’m sure there were more than just these two) to life long memories that they never should have been exposed to !
PUNS FULLY INTENDED
Additionally the whole community is now on the hook for any fall out including financial payouts to these individuals and families. Gendron just a few days ago went before the Salem Village Board singing the praises of Westosha Central and how many students from Kenosha have opened enrolled here and because of those many, many students, Westosha has received more than $2 million in additional dollars which has kept them from going to operational referendums these many past years.
(You can watch his presentation to the village meeting on YouTube. Just type in Village of Salem Lakes and tap on live meetings March 10)
But at what cost has that increase in open enrollment created ? Sure I’m all for parents and families open enrolling to a district better than the one they live in, but like a lot of other examples of liberals moving away from communities they helped create, they fail to see that while they moved away from those places, many of them brought their problems with them.
For that lack of for-thought and intentional follow through this administration, and I’m including not just Gendron but any and all principals and teachers that didn’t speak out against this obvious violation of individual rights, NEED TO BE FIRED !!
Gendron needs to be fired and the gym teacher should resign immediately and argue to the next school she applies at that this wasn’t her fault. Or take her degrees and training and move into the private sector somewhere where she’s wanted. Plenty of Rex Plex’s around to go work at.
As for Gendron, he should just call it a career and hope he doesn’t get sued personally though I think he should. If not by the students and parents involved, then by me and all the other taxpayers that will have to pay for this.
As a Westosha parent I wish these students and parents get all that’s coming to them. On the same note, as a Westosha taxpayer, I want all above fired and gone because of what this will cost me. As for the existing school board, I’m not going to settle for your reasoning that you “had to” let this happen and play out. You should have taken the high road and worried about the legal fallout on the “right side” of this issue and not the “left side”.
For any of the community’s parents looking to step up and run for school board, now’s your chance in the next few cycles because I’ll bet any existing incumbent that chooses to run again will be voted out on this issue alone.
Hang up your hat Gendron and hope they don’t come after your wallet.
Salem village meeting. See link below.
Gendron’s presentation starts at the 11:00 minute mark. The $2 million statement is at 17:00 minute mark. And he’s so proud of that !!
https://www.youtube.com/live/T3CCGBi9NEU?si=FDZMWYZNqlBlp3bN
Open enrollment is making the schools horrible. If I wanted my children to attend Kenosha schools I would live there. We live in the county for a reason.
It works both ways.
What’s missing here is that Westosha is failing to hold these open enrollment students to the higher standard.
They are tolerating their bad behavior and influences. Not telling their parents that we don’t allow that here !!
Allowing them to drag us down instead of embracing them to bring them up
Gendron has always been lazy and ignored problems hoping they would just go away. This time its too big to sweep under the rug. He ran Riverview Elementary in Silver Lake into the ground with his lack of leadership and constant avoidance of any confrontation. This has left the school with fewer qualified teachers, an assistant principal with no marketable skills, in a building that is falling apart after years of deferred maintenance and lack of proper oversight. So much for his soft landing until retirement at the high school. This one isn’t going away Gendron. It’s time that you take accountability for your long career of failures. The number of students who have suffered from your lack of leadership and accountability finally have a voice.
So a mistake as big as this in real word industry would wholesale get you fired and possibly jailed for poor decision making involving risk to minors, and recklessly putting stakeholders (being taxpayers) financial investments in the community at risk as well?
Why aren’t these people held accountable? Why aren’t any of these people chastised in public for continuing to receive payroll for obvious negligence in duties hired or elected for?
Why is this not being handled as willful negligence and being prosecuted like anyone else would under normal circumstances?
Funny how the law and investigations work sometimes huh?
But let’s focus more on exposing a neighbor for having their dog not leashed during a 68 degree spring day. Or a business that had dirty silverware on Facebook and pile on.
Flush it all down already.
The school board while being a paid position is mostly “volunteer” and with little or no qualifications required. Sure they get training after they are elected but consider the source of that training.
As for the “employees” like the top guy or gal administrator, they are hired by that same school board because the board needs trained employees to tell the board what to do. It’s a big circle ….
Schools are just following orders. Orders from the Federal Government. Hopefully that is soon to change to just state involvement. But even at that, it’s careful what you wish for. It’s all about the money. Or lack of it. School funding is f..ked up in Wisconsin from Madison. Not that money solves all problems but the fear of money being withheld (or as it’s known in the real world, extorted) is what directs policy.
Privatize schools.
It puts the lotion on it’s shaft…
I didnt know Buffalo Betsy attended Westosha!
In Las Vegas they’re eating the teslas
Gendron and the rest of Westosha administration failed to protect all parties involved. To make matters worse, they lied to the board and to the parents of Westosha students hoping the matter would simply go away. Every single administrator should be fired immediately, starting with Gendron.
The fact that anyone would dislike this shows how little you actually care for the students.
The education in Kenosha County is horrible. I hope these girls win big! The teachers and the admin involved in this at the Central need to be fired
Westosha has become a cesspit. I wouldn’t allow any family member to attend that craphole. Used to be a nice school. Homeschool is the way to go now.
Skool board should all be charged for aiding and abetting criminal voyeurism with the intent for sexual stimulation. Parents get off your dead asses and get into those skool board meetings, organize yourselves and recall the entire board.
VOTE NO ON THE SALEM REFERENDUM
I thought we lived in a democracy.. Why are we catering to a minority (group, person, etc.) These girls should not have been subject to this nut job kid.. Unfortunately, the girls are going win and the taxpayers are going to lose. Parents who have kids going to Westosha should pull their kids and open enroll elsewhere, pulling the state funding. Remember it takes a weak man to play in women sports, takes a weaker mind to accept it.
Sure. Ok.
Take your kids out. Send them down the road.
To where ? What will change ??
What will be different ??
This is about the School Board and the People that they Hire. Nothing More.
It’s not about the building. Not about the location.
Sure it’s true Westosha like Union Grove are the first two high schools west of Kenosha that parents who want out of Kenosha open enroll to.
That’s just logistics. But that’s not the reason this happened.
So if you feel really angry about what happened then the solution is simple.
1. Demand the Firing of the administrator !
2. Come up with a slate of candidates to fill all board member seats.
3. Demand that each board member resign one at a time. Immediately upon that resignation the remaining board members appoint a new member from that slate of candidates.
Rinse and repeat until all existing board members have resigned and each has been replaced. Should be able to do all of this in just one meeting.
4. The new board immediately fires Gendron if he isn’t already gone.
5. All appointed members then either finish out the term of the member they replaced or run in a special election according to existing election laws.
This mass resignations of the board and appointments of their replacements can “legally” be done without animosity or malice.
The existing board just needs to accept that they failed at the highest levels and accept that the only solution is to move forward with a complete new board.
Even if an existing board member wants to stay on they should still resign and come back at the next election and run again. Until then you are as culpable as any of the others in this fiasco that has brought harm to our students.
So instead of taking your children out of this school, redirect that energy into remaking the whole board and start fresh. From the top on down.
Stay and be a part of the fix.
Absolutely, fire them all. Easy first step. Second step: legal repercussions. If the Dept of Education was ever supposed to do something, it would have been this–the fact that it has gotten worse shows that the feds did nothing for education since 1979. Now that it the department is gone, we need to ratchet up prosecution on the state level.
Sue the school for this nonsense! These poor girls, where are their rights and safety? Shame on the gym teacher too!