More parents claim Colorado school district forced children into overnight rooms with students of opposite sex

More parents have come forward with claims that children in a Colorado school district were forced into sharing overnight rooms, even showers, with students of the opposite sex. 

Christian parents Joe and Serena Wailes said their 11-year-old daughter was allegedly forced into sharing her bed with a biological male who identified as a girl on an overnight trip at Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in December. 

Since the Wailes spoke out, more parents have come forward with similar reports. 

At the district's Outdoor Lab retreat, where 6th grade students travel to the mountains for a science trip, a group of middle school girls had a student who identifies as trans, placed in their cabin without the knowledge of their parents, according to ADF. In addition, a high school counselor, who was a girl identifying as a boy, was put in charge of a cabin of sixth grade boys. 

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Alliance Defending Freedom sent a demand letter to Jefferson County Public Schools alleging their transgender policies were "unconstitutional." (Alliance Defending Freedom)

In December, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a demand letter to JCPS on behalf of the Wailes alleging that its policy of "hiding information from parents and lying to students is unconstitutional." As more information has come forward, ADF sent a second letter to the district, claiming their demands were "misinterpreted," expressing concern that JCPS still failed "to state whether parents can opt their children out of any policy that rooms children by gender identity rather than sex."

ADF is also asking JCPS to allow parents to opt their children out of any policy prior to an overnight trip that rooms children by gender identity rather than sex. 

ADF senior counsel and director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights Kate Anderson said parents, not the government, have the right to direct the upbringing and education of their children, which includes making informed decisions to protect their child’s privacy. 

"As we explain in our second letter to Jefferson County Public Schools, the district has still failed to state whether parents, like our clients Joe and Serena Wailes, can opt their children out of any policy that rooms children by gender identity rather than sex," she said. "Such an opt-out can be accomplished in a number of confidential ways to protect the privacy of all students."

"The Waileses’ troubling experience is not isolated; we’ve spoken with other parents who’ve had similar incidents occur during the school district’s required sixth-grade Outdoor Lab trips," she added. "If Jefferson County Public Schools is going to continue placing students of the opposite sex in the same room on overnight trips—as it confirmed it would—the district must inform parents of that policy and allow families to opt their children out as they deem best for their family."

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Joe Wailes told Fox News Digital in a December interview that he felt "helpless" in protecting his daughter from the situation. His daughter found out the student she was sharing a bed with was transgender only because the student told her on the first night of the trip, according to ADF. 

"It was a bit of a shock. It was a helpless feeling," he said. "Here I am… she was calling me and texting me from the bathroom because she didn't want the other kids to overhear what she was saying. So it's a pretty helpless feeling when your daughter is hiding in the bathroom, she's trying to convey a message to you, and you're 2,000 miles away and can't do anything."

Serena Wailes happened to be on the trip and intervened in the situation. 

"It was very frustrating because all along when we were planning the trip, we were told that boys were going to be on one floor of the hotel and girls were going to be on the other, and they were not allowed to intermingle," Serena said. "And so it never crossed our mind that this could possibly happen."

Fox News Digital previously reported on Jeffco Public Schools' gender support plan. (Jeffco Public Schools)

"She was uncomfortable about the prospect of sharing a bed with a male student," ADF stated. "The school chaperon asked the Wailes’ daughter if they could merely move her to a different bed rather than a different room. While she was still uncomfortable with this arrangement, she agreed to try it for one night."

"It then took the girl and her parents multiple requests to get her moved to another room," ADF's letter alleged. "And even then, chaperons told the girl to lie about the reason for her move because of the district’s overnight rooming policy — a policy that violates parental rights and student privacy by rooming students based on gender identity while hiding that information from other parents and students."

"JCPS officials then decided to lie to her roommates, and instructed the Wailes’ daughter to do the same, telling her to say she needed to switch beds to be closer to the air conditioner," the ADF alleged. The other girls in the room were not informed about the biological male in their room, but were eventually moved to another girls room at the behest of a chaperon. 

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In its second letter, ADF attorneys explained they had been approached by other parents with similar concerns. 

"We have reports of sixth graders of the opposite sex being placed in the same cabin," the letter said. "Even more concerning, we have spoken with parents whose eleven-year-old sixth-grade child was placed in a cabin with an 18- year-old high school counselor of the opposite sex." 

Similar transgender policies are being challenged across the country.  (Fox News Digital)

In addition to staying in the same cabin as sixth-grade students, the high school counselors at Outdoor Lab are also in charge of supervising showers to ensure students do not take too long, according to ADF. 

"Considering that students at Outdoor Lab cannot contact their parents during the trip, it would be up to an 11-year-old to face this invasion of privacy alone," the letter continued. "Here, the child did not feel comfortable speaking up during the trip, and the parents did not discover this invasion of their child’s privacy until the trip ended."

After publication of this article, JCPS responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment with a letter it sent to Alliance Defending Freedom last month. It said in part, "At no time prior to June 25, 2023 did either the supervising chaperones or the private tour operator (EF Tours) know that Jane Doe was transgender. The student enrolled for the trip as a female, consistent with her school enrollment and gender identity as expressed there for several years. EF Tours representatives and Jeffco chaperones learned of Jane Doe’s transgender identity only after she made a voluntary disclosure to peers. 

"Because no student should be expected to share a bed with a student of a different birth sex, chaperones worked quickly to secure an additional room. We have found no evidence to support the claim that it took the family "multiple requests to get [D.W.] moved to another room." Rather, room assignments were corrected by dinnertime. At no time did these students share a bed, and they went on to have a positive experience learning about our nation’s founding in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Neither Jeffco nor EF Tours was aware of any lingering concern until your letter arrived six months later."

Fox News Digital previously reported that JCPS' equity policies had a methodical system in place to keep parents in the dark about their child's gender transition in schools and that a student's gender, not sex, would be used to determine where they would be placed for overnight trips. 

The JCPS policy states that students who identify as the opposite sex should be "assigned to share overnight accommodations with other students that share the student’s gender identity consistently asserted at school." 

"Under no circumstance shall a student who is transgender be required to share a room with students whose gender identity conflicts with their own," the policy states. 

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ADF attorneys believe such a policy violates the Wailes’ religious beliefs, as well as the parental rights of all parents in the district and the privacy rights of all students.

"The school district failed to answer our primary question: will they inform parents of this policy and allow them to opt out their children before a trip?" Anderson told Fox News Digital. "The current policy does not allow parents to choose what is best for their children when attending any overnight trip sponsored by the school district." 

"Once again, parents were left in the dark and unable to make the best decisions for their children," she added. "When information is hidden from parents, everyone should be concerned."

Fox News' Hannah Grossman contributed to this report.