District 128 must tell parents who shares their child’s room
As Liberty Justice Center discusses potential plaintiffs, District 128 still leaves parents unable to know whether their child will share an overnight room with an opposite-sex peer.
Parents, not District 128 administrators, decide who their child sleeps beside on a school trip, and the district is refusing to honor that. Liberty Justice Center is speaking with potential plaintiffs about pursuing litigation after the district defended its policy of assigning overnight rooms by gender identity, Daily Signal reporter Tyler O'Neil reported on Oct. 23.
O’Neil reported that Liberty Justice Center was speaking with potential plaintiffs1. The center says: “As a result, parents receive only participating students’ chosen names, leaving them with no way to know whether their minor child will share a room with an opposite-sex peer.”2 On Oct. 14, Liberty Justice Center attorney Kathryn Cosgrove wrote to District 128 Superintendent Marc Schaffer, warning that failure to address the concerns could lead to legal action under federal civil-rights law and Title IX3. O’Neil reported the district’s defense: “District 128 said disclosing gender identity of a male student housed with girls would violate federal privacy rights under FERPA.”
“put school administrators in the role of deciding what parents can and cannot know about their own children”
The policy leaves parents in the dark
The policy is a written rule, and its own text leaves a parent in the dark. Liberty Justice Center says the district's overnight trip policy assigns lodging by gender identity rather than biological sex and bars disclosure of roommates' biological sex to parents without student consent2.
The district's Gender Support Guidelines reach further. Liberty Justice Center says they direct staff not to reveal a student's transgender status to anyone, including parents, without the student's authorization2. The letter quotes the Guidelines as saying staff "should not disclose information that reveals a student's transgender status to others unless authorized by the student and documented in the Gender Support Plan3."
The district invokes FERPA to withhold room details
O'Neil wrote that the district "essentially told the parents to pound sand4."
A parent asking about a trip is not asking for another child's file. That parent is asking who will share a room with their own child. The district's privacy argument shields a transition from the family of every girl placed in that room, and the family of the student, too. That is a rule built so that parents are the last to know.
Parents—not schools—direct their children’s upbringing
The law, and common sense, put the parent first. The consequence is plain: parents, not school administrators, must decide whether their child joins a trip under a rooming policy that hides a roommate’s sex. Liberty Justice Center cites the Supreme Court's decisions in Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025) and Mirabelli v. Bonta (2026) as reaffirming those rights2.
The district's own document shows where it stands. The Gender Support Guidelines tell staff and students to be "proactive in creating a school climate that respects, values and fosters understanding of gender identity5." Liberty Justice Center says the guidelines require all staff to use a "gender-affirming approach" and treat refusal to affirm a student's self-asserted gender identity as grounds for discipline2. That is ideological capture: a school district writing transgender ideology into its rules for staff, and then invoking a privacy statute to keep parents out of the room.
Cosgrove said the policies "put school administrators in the role of deciding what parents can and cannot know about their own children2."
District 128 should amend its policies
Liberty Justice Center’s demand letter asks the district to provide written assurance that it will begin amending its policies3. A written commitment would start policy revisions, followed by staff notice and training.
The district should amend its policies so parents know whether their daughter will share a room with a male student.
Sources
- @Tyler2ONeil on X, 2026-10-23: 🚨EXCLUSIVE Illinois parents are considering legal action after a school district defended its policy of rooming "transgender" boys with girls on overnight trips. @LJCenter tells me it is talking with potential plaintiffs. 🚨1/10 https://www.dailysignal.com/2, 2026-10-23
- Liberty Justice Center Warns Illinois School District That Its Gender Policies Violate Parents’, Teachers’ and Students’ Rights - Liberty Justice Center
- 512-481-4400 | 1629 K ST. N.W. STE. 300, WASHINGTON, DC 20006 | WWW.LIBERTYJUSTICECENTER.ORG
- @Tyler2ONeil on X, 2026-10-23: This week, the school district responded. It essentially told the parents to pound sand. District 128 said disclosing gender identity of a male student housed with girls would violate federal privacy rights under FERPA. 🧵7/10 https://x.com/Tyler2ONeil/status, 2026-10-23
- Gender Support Guidelines - Community High School District 128
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