Protect the Public’s Trust files complaints over Reading, Princeton school officials who allegedly offered advice for keeping boys in girls’ sports

A watchdog group is asking the federal government to investigate Ohio schools, alleging that undercover videos purportedly showing school officials coaching on how to circumvent state law prove they violated Title IX.

Protect the Public’s Trust, which aims to hold government officials accountable, lodged complaints with the federal Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services departments. The complaints follow Accuracy in Media videos that allegedly depict school officials talking about how to sidestep an Ohio law that bars biological boys from participating in girls’ sports.

“Transgender ideology is inherently discriminatory and runs afoul of Title IX of the Civil Rights Act,” the complaints read. “Accordingly, we request that you promptly investigate the school’s violations.”

According to Accuracy in Media, Reading High School counselor Jennifer Leone told its investigator that boys with altered birth certificates and who appear to be female could use girls’ spaces. The burden would be on someone to question it.

“And that’s where, I would think, ‘this is what the birth certificate says, prove that it’s wrong,’” Leone said in the video, “Prove it.”

When asked whether parents would need their child’s original male birth certificate to join a girls’ sports team, Leone advised that parents should keep the child’s original male birth certificate a secret and not “discuss it outside these walls.”

She added: “As long as, you know, the name that’s on your birth certificate is the name that you put in the system, and you fill out everything in the system that matches the birth certificate, again, how are you going to prove it?”

In a statement to The National News Desk, Reading Community Schools Assistant Superintendent Mark Edwards said it would stand with Leone and derided “the deceptive tactics” AIM used.

“First and foremost, Reading Schools follows the law – always. We investigated this situation, including talking with our staff member, when we first learned of it, and we are comfortable that the video does not represent the truth,” Edwards said in the statement. “We are talking with legal counsel about our options.”

In a second case, Princeton City Schools’ Assistant Athletic Director Tamette Duckworth purportedly told an undercover reporter that the school may continue to permit boys to participate in girls’ sports, despite state and federal laws. The video prompted Attorney General Dave Yost to fire off a letter to Princeton High School Principal James Stallings.

“Unfortunately, these instances are emblematic of the support for these destructive and discriminatory policies that permeates the education system,” PPT Director Michael Chamberlain said in a release.

“One thing I learned while working at the U.S. Department of Education is that, among the education establishment, groupthink and a tendency to follow fads is strong, even in geographic areas where most people would not expect it,” Chamberlain added. “That’s why it’s important to educate the public about such incidents.”

AIM also captured videos of personnel with the Three Rivers School District and the Norwood City School District.

According to a February executive order President Trump signed, “it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”

Last year, Ohio lawmakers overrode a veto from Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to pass House Bill 68. The measure bars “gender-affirming medical care” for LGBTQ+ youth in Ohio, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy and bars biological males from playing on female sports teams.

Separately, DeWine signed Senate Bill 104, the Protect All Students Act, a measure requiring the state’s primary and secondary schools and higher education institutions to designate restrooms for use only by biological males or females.