Colorado parents say school silenced daughter after transgender rooming incident as legal fight escalates

A Colorado family’s outrage over their 11-year-old daughter being assigned a hotel room — and ultimately the same bed — with a transgender student during an overnight school trip to Washington, D.C., has evolved into a high-stakes federal appeal over parental rights and school transparency.

“They said that [they didn’t want us to talk about it] because they wanted to protect the privacy of the other student. And our thoughts are, ‘Well, what about the privacy of our daughter?’” demanded Serena Wailes, the mother who says the school district failed to inform her that one of the students assigned to the room was biologically male.

According to the Wailes family, their daughter only learned the truth upon arriving on the 2023 overnight trip and immediately called her mother, who was serving as a chaperone at the same event, in distress. 

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Although the school ultimately allowed the girl to switch rooms, she was allegedly instructed not to discuss the reason for the change, a directive her parents argue reflects a broader pattern of secrecy within Jefferson County Public Schools.

“We didn’t talk to the school after this. We looked at the different options, and we felt like the best course was taking legal action to make a difference,” Joe Wailes, the father suing the school district, told “The Ingraham Angle” on Tuesday.

“There’s several issues going on within the JeffCo schools where we didn’t feel like we’d be heard. We didn’t feel like we’d get anywhere by talking directly to the school or even to the district. We felt like we needed to do something to really take a bigger action.”

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal organization focused on religious liberty cases, filed its opening brief Wednesday in Wailes v. Jefferson County Public Schools before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on behalf of four families.

The suit claims the Denver-area district permits biologically male students to share overnight accommodations with girls based solely on gender identity, without notifying parents or obtaining their consent.

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It also claims the incident happened despite the district’s assurances that boys and girls would be placed on separate hotel floors.

Matt Sharp, an ADF attorney who also joined “The Ingraham Angle” on Tuesday, said the organization hopes to see the policy enjoined and ultimately changed.

“We want parental rights protected. We want parents to be informed about bad policies like this, and we want their request to be honored,” he said.

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“When they ask schools, ‘Don’t force our daughter to share a room with a boy,’ the school needs to honor that and needs to respect parents and needs to protect girls’ privacy.”

Jefferson County Public Schools did not immediately respond to a prior request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

The district did provide a statement to a local news outlet regarding the incident in September, however, writing:

“While we have not yet been served with the lawsuit, we have conducted a cursory review of what was filed with the court and we disagree with a number of claims made in it. We look forward to having an opportunity in court to share the true facts, including the reasonable accommodations we offer families and students.”

“Families always have the ultimate choice whether their student participates in any unique programming that involves overnight accommodations. We take these issues seriously, and we follow all Colorado state laws when it comes to how we treat students, staff and families.”

Fox News’ Bonny Chu contributed to this report.