Two of the largest school districts in Johnson County are pushing back after Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office called for federal investigations related to their policies on transgender students.
The Shawnee Mission School District and Olathe Public Schools — along with Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools and Topeka Public Schools — are the target of a letter Kobach’s office sent to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, accusing them of violating federal educational privacy laws. The office called on the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate the school districts.
However, both SMSD and Olathe schools have challenged the attorney general’s actions.
“Transgender students are welcome in all schools in the Shawnee Mission School District,” SMSD’s Chief Communications Officer David Smith said in an emailed statement. “We categorically denounce any attempt by any outside individual or entity to make even one student feel something less than welcome in an SMSD school.”
Kobach accuses schools of denying parents information
In his letter to Secretary McMahon on Tuesday, June 24, Kobach alleges that school districts are not properly notifying parents of their students’ gender identity, in violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
He writes that they are “promoting a virulent ideology that pushes children into a pipeline of ‘social transitioning’ without notifying parents who might object to this process.” Kobach suggests that it “infringes on parents’ constitutional right to direct the education and upbringing of their children.” (Read Kobach’s full letter here.)
Additionally, Kobach accuses SMSD of “forcing students to share their sex-separated bathrooms, locker rooms, and other intimate spaces with individuals on the basis of ‘gender identity’ rather than sex.”
He said that his office would work with federal investigators to make sure the named school districts “rescind policies that cut parents out of decisions about their minor children’s education and upbringing and replace them with policies that restore the rule of law, parental rights, and common sense in these districts.”
Kobach’s letter follows a federal civil rights complaint filed by conservative nonprofit Defense of Freedom Institute, also dated June 24, which he references multiple times.
All of this comes amid ongoing pressure from the federal government for public school districts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts pertaining in particular to race and gender amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on so-called “woke ideology.”
Olathe schools, Shawnee Mission push back on Kobach’s claims
In an email, Smith with the SMSD described Kobach’s letter “as a publicity tactic, to start public discord between his office and public school districts in the very state that he represents and that he was elected to strengthen.”
“The Shawnee Mission School District is declining to engage in this stunt; Mr. Kobach is raising boxing gloves over hypothetical scenarios and the SMSD will not step into the ring,” Smith said.
Olathe schools offered a similar assessment.
“As the second largest district in the state supporting tens of thousands of students, Olathe Public Schools does not have time to engage in political agendas,” the school district said in a prepared statement.
Additionally, Olathe schools said that the district follows all state and federal laws, and added that the school district “does not and has never socially transitioned our students.”
Kobach, local schools have sparred over trans students before
In late 2023, Kobach sent a handful of school districts and the Kansas Association of School Boards letters addressing the same topic, primarily concerned with claims that school districts were hiding gender identity information about students from their parents, or not properly notifying them.
At the time, then-SMSD Superintendent Michelle Hubbard said in a written response to Kobach’s office that she believed his original letter was “primarily informed by misinformation from inconspicuously partisan sources, as well as by incorrect assumptions about our administrator guidance for working with transgender families.”
Kobach, in his letter this week, said that two school districts changed their policies related to parental notification of a minor student’s gender identity, but that four did not, including Olathe and SMSD.
“These four districts continue to either permit or require hiding information concerning the ‘social transitioning’ of children from their parents,” Kobach writes.
However, both the Olathe and Shawnee Mission school districts suggest that Kobach’s office failed to provide specific examples of affected parents in their districts, which would be typically required as the basis for a formal investigation.
Olathe Public Schools, in their statement this week, also indicated that the AG’s office was uncooperative when district officials requested guidance on what changes the office was seeking.
“Due to the limited information shared by the Attorney General’s office, the district was left with no actionable information to make change,” the school district’s statement said. “Despite the district’s willingness to remedy any concerns, the result of the meeting and overall interaction left the district feeling as though they were part of a larger political agenda.”
Leah Wankum contributed. This story was originally published by the Johnson County Post.
