Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is pleased to announce that 17 school boards across the State have officially joined our Title IX lawsuit as plaintiffs to defend the rights of women and girls.
Those school boards include:
– Acadia Parish School Board
– Allen Parish School Board
– Bossier Parish School Board
– Caddo Parish School Board
– Caldwell Parish School Board
– DeSoto Parish School Board
– Grant Parish School Board
– Jeff Davis Parish School Board
– LaSalle Parish School Board
– Natchitoches Parish School Board
– Ouachita Parish School Board
– Red River Parish School Board
– Sabine Parish School Board
– St. Tammany Parish School Board
– Webster Parish School Board
– West Carroll Parish School Board
“Thank you to the school board members and leaders in these districts for stepping up to the plate and protecting women. We have received tremendous support from school leaders and parents all across this State. They want us to get back to teaching our children how to properly read and write, and to not abide by this reckless mandate, which ignores significant safety concerns for young women students in pre-schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities across Louisiana and the entire country,” said Attorney General Liz Murrill.
Below is additional background information on how this process worked:
Why have school districts joined the litigation?
Although the final rule hurts the state directly, it also has serious consequences for our local schools. We wanted to partner with school districts that would be able to provide more details about how the Rule will negatively impact school operations, teachers, and students.
Why these school board?
These were the school boards that were able to act expeditiously to call school board meeting and pass the resolution. Understandably, some other school boards had scheduling conflicts or other obstacles that prevented them from being able to act as quickly. We’re unfortunately on a very compressed timeline. The final rule is causing harm right now, including by requiring the State and school districts to incur unrecoverable compliance costs. That means we must act quickly in this litigation to stop the implementation and enforcement of the final rule.
What about school boards who did not join?
Other school boards can support our litigation efforts in other ways. For example, they can pass resolutions showing that they support our lawsuit and do not wish to comply with the final rule. They could also file an amicus brief in support at some point in the litigation. Finally, if we are successful in our lawsuit, the final rule will be vacated and no school districts will be forced to comply with it.
To read our updated lawsuit, click here.