Trustee Coston Statement on Trump Administration's Termination of La Mesa-Spring Valley's Title IX Agreement

Yesterday, the Trump administration sent a dangerous message to transgender and LGBTQ+ students across this country by terminating Title IX agreements protecting their rights. As a La Mesa-Spring Valley School District Trustee, I refuse to echo this rhetoric.

For our students, this decision changes nothing. Every student who walks through our doors will be supported, respected, and given every opportunity to thrive. That’s what educators are supposed to do.

In La Mesa-Spring Valley, we have updated our mission statement to reflect the diverse communities we serve, strengthened our curriculum to be representative of our students, and built policies of inclusion because we know that every child thrives when they feel seen and supported. This work predates this administration’s attacks and it will outlast them too.

I won’t pretend yesterday’s decision isn’t dangerous. It gives cover to districts who wish to do harm, in schools where a federal agreement was the only thing protecting trans students from a hostile environment. Those students lost a real layer of safety today, and we should all be troubled by that.

This is one attack in a pattern: rulings undermining AB 1955 protections, weakening conversion therapy bans for minors, the Olympics excluding transgender women. Together, they send a clear message that LGBTQ+ young people are not welcome.

I know what it looks like when a district falls short for its LGBTQ+ students. That's exactly why our work has been so deliberate and why we are not going back. We are not afraid, and we are not wavering.