Conservative Florida-Based ‘Moms for Liberty’ Litigation Restricts Wilton Schools Title IX Policies

Wilton’s Board of Education has had its hands tied by a federal lawsuit brought against the U.S. Department of Education in part by a conservative nonprofit group called Moms for Liberty, which wants to keep new federal sexual harassment policies from going into effect.

As a result, Wilton is being forced to maintain outdated policies at Cider Mill and Miller-Driscoll Schools currently in place, and will potentially only be able to revise the policies for Middlebrook School and Wilton High School based on the new DOE guidelines.

In April 2024, the U.S. DOE gave what it described as its “final rule” to the Title IX education amendment of 1972. Originally created to prohibit sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities that received federal funding, the updated “final rule” also speaks to pregnancy discrimination and the bullying and harassment of LGBTQI+ students in particular.

“The final regulations strengthen vital protections for students in our nation’s schools and provide clear rules to help schools meet their Title IX obligation to eliminate sex discrimination in their education programs and activities,” according to the DOE. 

In response, two dozen or so states have sought to block the revised regulations for various reasons through the courts. The DOE has advised institutions in those states with pending litigation to continue to abide by the 2020 version of the amendment, which was the last time it was updated.

In July, however, a group including Moms for Liberty, alongside an organization called Young America’s Foundation, filed a lawsuit through the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. The court issued a unique injunction blocking the DOE rule — and ordered that the DOE’s final rule would also be blocked in any schools that are attended by children of its members anywhere in the country.

“There is a parent or multiple parents here in this community that are members of the Moms for Liberty group that are part of this lawsuit, where the injunctions are enforced,” Superintendent Kevin Smith said.

It’s unclear whether the list of schools can be expanded to include more at this time, but the DOE offers a comprehensive list (available online) that already includes hundreds of schools throughout the country, including more than 50 public schools in Connecticut.

“Currently there are 670 universities that are enjoined by the overlapping injunctions,” Smith said, “and then there are scores of schools. Cider Mill and Miller-Driscoll were listed.”

The list also includes Middlesex Middle School in Darien, three schools in Ridgefield, including Farmingville Elementary School, East Ridge Middle School, and Ridgefield High School, and five schools in Newtown, including Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“This is a complex national issue,” Smith later told GOOD Morning Wilton, as well as a very unusual situation.

“I believe what is most controversial [in the updated Title IX law] and what brought about the lawsuits are the new protections that are afforded to transgender individuals,” he said.

Asked if he had been in touch with any of the Wilton parents that might be involved with Moms for Liberty, he said, “No. I don’t know who they are and would not have a way of finding that out.”

“As I mentioned [at] last night[‘s BOE meeting], I believe our two schools are on that list because we have at least one parent who is a member of Moms for Liberty and has listed each of our elementary schools,” he said.

On Thursday night, Dec. 5, Smith explained the situation to the BOE, which is currently reviewing four separate policy documents regarding the prohibition of sex discrimination and sexual harassment under Title IX. Two of the regulations focus on students at Wilton’s elementary and secondary schools, respectively, while two other policies focus on employees at those schools.

“So for Cider Mill and Miller-Driscoll if there is a Title IX complaint,” he said, “we have to use the 2020 policy, the initial set. For Middlebrook and the High School, we get to use the new ones.”

“Make sense?” he asked.

“Yes and no,” BOE member Pat Pearson said.

An email GMW sent to the Fairfield County representative of Moms for Liberty received no response.

The group at the national level has experienced some controversy itself over the past year following accusations of sexual assault made against the husband of cofounder Bridget Ziegler. Christian Ziegler, ousted chair of the Florida state Republican Party, who reportedly engaged in threesomes with his wife and various partners, was accused of rape by one woman. The controversy led to political troubles for him, but Bridget Ziegler, who admitted to the threesomes, has managed to maintain her seat on the Sarasota County School Board.

Wilton’s school board, meanwhile, will do a second reading of the Prohibition of Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment policies at its next meeting on Thursday, Dec. 19.

BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca noted that, with the change in the administration in Washington, D.C., the Title IX final rule potentially could change again.

“Yes, so that’s the punchline here,” Smith said, “and we should anticipate that it’ll probably change again, but for now this is the law of the land.”