Colorado school district says Trump admin accused mascots of being boys on girls’ teams

This story originally appeared on Them.The Trump administration’s war on transgender participation in school sports seems to have found an unintended target: mascots.A Colorado school district targeted by the Department of Education for allegedly having 61 boys on the rosters of girls’ sports teams has responded that mascots, trainers, and managers account for all of those names, calling the Trump administration’s allegations “simply not true.”In a public letter issued this month, Jeffco Public Schools — which encompasses Jefferson County, just outside of Denver city limits — detailed its yearlong history of being investigated by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which has deployed the Trump administration’s trans-exclusionary interpretation of Title IX to attack civil rights protections in schools across the country. That investigation was opened in June 2025.In March of this year, the Education Department announced that “male students may occupy up to 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams in the District” and concluded that Jeffco Public Schools had violated Title IX. A follow-up Education Department press release, dated June 3 of this year, hit a more conclusive note, writing that Jeffco Public Schools has “blatantly violated Title IX” with locker and restroom policies — and noting that a review of the rosters “found the District allowed male students to occupy roster sports on girls’ sports teams, displacing girls from the athletic programs designed for female students.”This more recent release also accompanied a letter warning the school district of impending enforcement action.In Jeffco Public Schools’ public response, published June 11, the school claimed that OCR had jumped to conclusions about the men’s names listed on the rosters they provided during the investigation. “Because the OCR never asked us to clarify the role of any individual listed on those rosters, we did not learn of th