Trump administration guts sex misconduct policy for schools: report

Erik De La Garza
January 31, 2025 

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High school students in classroom (Shutterstock)

President Donald Trump ordered a dramatic revamping of Title IX rules that promise to transform how federally funded K-12 schools and colleges handle sex assault claims and LGBT students.

The order, the latest in a dizzying deluge of executive actions since Trump returned to the White House last week, came Friday and restructures how the nation’s teachers interpret Title IX, the federal law that forbids sex-based discrimination in education, the Daily Beast reported.

Trump’s new policy change brings back to life the Title IX changes he saw through during his first presidency in 2018, the publication noted. The new rules usher in stronger protections for the accused.

“It reduces the liability placed on schools in sexual misconduct cases,” according to the Daily Beast. “It also requires live hearings and cross-examinations and allows lawyers to be present at those hearings.”

The rule change also eliminates LGBT safeguards expanded under the Biden administration that included gender identity and sexual orientation, according to the publication. Those protections will no longer be enforced by the Trump administration.

The development comes as a federal judge in Kentucky earlier this month struck down former President Joe Biden’s protections for transgender students as unconstitutional.

Emma Grasso Levine, a Know Your IX senior manager, described the decision to the Daily Beast as “incredibly disappointing” and claimed it “will leave many survivors of sexual violence, LGBTQ+ students, and pregnant and parenting students without” important accommodations.