Resident urges North Smithfield to remove transgender athletic protocol, cites Title IX concerns

Robert, a resident who addressed the North Smithfield School Committee during public comment on Dec. 16, urged the district to eliminate its transgender/gender nonconforming protocol and to change student handbooks and athletic policies to require single‑sex teams except when a team is explicitly designated as coed. “This trans protocol must be changed for the betterment of all and to comply with federal law,” he said.

Robert told the committee he reviewed Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIL) rules and said the league shifted decision‑making to school principals after the state attorney general and education commissioner gave guidance. He cited two matches — Sept. 12 and Sept. 16, 2024 — when North Smithfield High School’s girls' soccer team played Moses Brown and said a biological boy was on the opposing team, which he described as placing “your girls in unsafe, unfair, and unlawful positions.”

The commenter argued that Title IX protects against sex‑based discrimination and that district policy impermissibly treats Title IX as extending to gender identity; he asked the committee to replace the district’s transgender protocol with explicit rules about biological sex for North Smithfield middle and high school teams, separate teams for biological boys and girls, and prohibitions on biological female athletes competing against biological males.

No committee member offered a substantive response during the public‑comment period recorded in the transcript. The superintendent and staff did not provide an immediate legal analysis in the meeting record; the transcript documents the comment and the committee’s listening but does not show that the board took action or voted on changes to the district policy at this meeting.

What happens next: The comment was recorded in the public‑comment period; any policy change would require staff review, legal counsel input and eventual committee consideration on a future agenda.