The Texas attorney general is asking multiple North Texas school districts to turn over documents regarding their policies on transgender student athletes.
RICHARDSON, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is expanding his investigation into school districts’ policies on transgender student-athletes to include Richardson ISD and Hutto ISD.
Paxton’s request for documents from the districts comes after he made similar requests for documents last week from Dallas ISD and Irving ISD.
Paxton’s request for information also comes after the conservative advocacy group Accuracy In Media published videos of Richardson ISD, Irving ISD, Dallas ISD and Hutto ISD staff members without their knowledge.
On its website, Accuracy in Media claims it uses “investigative journalism and cultural activism to expose corruption and hold bad public policy actors accountable.” Representatives of the group have met with educators across Texas purporting to be parents seeking to move to Texas from out of state concerned about issues like Texas’ ban on transgender athletes or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
One of the videos showed a person, identified in the video as an “undercover journalist,” asking the Richardson ISD staff member about the district’s policies regarding transgender students.
Specifically, the person identified as an undercover journalist asked the Richardson ISD staff member whether her transgender daughter would be able to travel and stay in hotels overnight with the rest of the female students.
“If there was travel, would the trans –would my transgender daughter be able to travel and stay with the rest of the girls or is that something you’d have to figure out case by case?” the person purporting to be a parent asked in the video.
“I think it’s case by case. I think that there’s been times when that has been worked out but the student, and I’m just going on the cases I know about, but the student – the other students who were in the room, they were all friends and so they knew and the parents were OK with it,” the Richardson ISD staff member responded.
Richardson ISD said in a statement to WFAA that the district will comply with the records requests and “closely follows Texas law.”
“RISD has received the public information request from the AG’s Office. We will comply with responding to the records request in accordance with the Texas Public Information Act,” the district said in a statement. “RISD closely follows Texas law, including the UIL requirement that student athletes must compete according to the gender on their original birth certificate. The district is not aware of any instance whatsoever where this requirement was not followed in RISD. If any entity has information about a suspected violation of Texas or federal law, they are strongly encouraged to share information with RISD for evaluation and next steps.”
An Irving ISD administrator resigned after a hidden camera video apparently showed the administrator discussing whether transgender students could play on sports teams that align with their gender identity despite Texas law. Gov. Greg Abbott had called for the administrator’s firing and investigations into the school district after the video was posted and before Paxton launched his investigation into the incident.
The state health department blocked transgender people from changing the sex listed on birth certificates last year.
Paxton’s announcement requests for information from the school districts also came within a week of President Donald Trump signing an executive order to bar transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
