11-Year-Old Girl Told to Sleep in Same Bed as Boy Who Identifies as Transgender: Letter

Transgender affirming childrens books in Irvine, Calif. on Aug. 30, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Officials at a school in Colorado assigned a girl to sleep in the same bed as a boy, according to a new letter.

The 11-year-old girl was assigned “to sleep in the same bed with a fifth-grade boy who identifies as transgender without notifying the girl or her parents,” lawyers with the Alliance Defending Freedom said in the Dec. 4 missive, which went to Jefferson County Superintendent Tracy Dorland and members of the county school board.

The students were on a cross-country overnight trip when the situation unfolded.

The girl only learned about the assignment when the boy told her after the trip started.

The girl and her parents worked to change the assignment. Chaperones on the trip finally approved the request, but only after telling the girl to lie about the reason because of the school district’s overnight rooming policy, according to lawyers representing the parents.

That policy says that “in the planning of sleeping arrangements during overnight activity and athletic trips, the needs of students who are transgender shall be assessed on a case-by-case basis with the goals of maximizing the student’s social integration, providing equal opportunity to participate in overnight activity and athletic trips, ensuring the student’s safety and comfort, and minimizing stigmatization of the student.”

In most situations, “students who are transgender should be assigned to share overnight accommodations with other students that share the student’s gender identity consistently asserted at school,” according to the policy. “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 says that “transitions,” or changing one’s gender, could surface as early as elementary school.

The girl and two other female students were told to room together, along with a fourth student, during a trip to Philadelphia and Washington in June, according to the letter. That student disclosed to the girls inside the room that he is a boy who thinks he’s a girl.

The girl was uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping with a boy and called her mother, who was also on the trip but not a chaperone. The girl met her mother in the lobby. The mother, Serena Wailes, called a chaperone, who in turn called the school’s principal. The principal called the parents of the boy, who confirmed that their child was a male who identified as a girl.

The parents said their child was in “stealth mode,” according to the letter.

The chaperones initially tried to get the girl to switch to a different bed in the same room, and the girl agreed. The girl followed instructions from chaperones and told her roommates that she wanted to switch beds to be closer to the air conditioner. But another girl then asked the boy if he wanted to switch beds, too. That prompted the Wailes girl, identified as D.W., to call her mother again. They asked again for a new room assignment.

The chaperones agreed this time, but claimed the move was due to a sick roommate, according to the letter.

“One, I was really upset that she was put in that situation at 11 years old—I don’t feel that is fair to put kids in that kind of situation—and two, that we were not even given the information that this was a possibility before the trip,” Ms. Wailes told the Daily Signal. “The whole time they’re saying, ‘Girls on one floor, boys on another, they’re not going to be in each other’s rooms unless it is pre-approved.’ So we’re going through this whole process, not even recognizing that this is a possibility.”

A teacher was also accused of telling the three girls who were assigned to the same room as a boy to not tell anyone that the boy was a boy, despite the boy himself disclosing that information.

The district’s policy does not afford the same rights to all students, Alliance Defending Freedom lawyers said.

Due to the policy, D.W. “was placed in a position where her privacy and comfort were not respected or even considered. Her privacy was violated,” they said. “And then, to try to protect her privacy, D.W. had to risk social ostracization because school officials required her to raise her privacy concerns during the trip and in front of other students and teachers, including the transgender student.”

The policy violates parental rights, the lawyers said. They asked for clarification of the policy, including confirmation that parents would be informed before school-sponsored trips of the sex of their children’s roommates.

“Parents, not the government, have the right to direct the upbringing and education of their children, and that includes making informed decisions to protect their child’s privacy. Schools should never hide information from parents, yet that’s exactly what JCPS officials did here. And that put the Waileses’ 11-year-old daughter in a very challenging situation where she had to choose between sleeping in the same bed with a biological boy and advocating for her privacy in front of her teachers and peers,” Kate Anderson, senior counsel and director of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s Center for Parental Rights, told The Epoch Times via email.

“Understandably, the Wailes family is asking JCPS to cease its practice of intentionally withholding information about rooming accommodations from parents. Every parent should have the information needed to make the best decision for their children,” she added.

The Wailes have two fourth-grade children who are planning to go on a similar trip in 2024 and have already begun fundraising for it, according to the letter.

Jefferson County School Board member Paula Reed declined to comment.

Ms. Dorland and the other members of the board did not respond to queries.