Overnight school field trips are supposed to be an exciting time for young students to enjoy hands-on learning and bond with their classmates. For many, school trips to historic American cities like Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, D.C., have created some of the fondest memories of their educational journey.
But for the Wailes family, this was not the case. Instead, their daughter’s trip from Colorado to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., was marked by a deeply uncomfortable situation that created negative memories for the entire family.
Leading up to the trip, Joe and Serena Wailes were told that boys and girls would be sleeping separately on different floors. What the school failed to tell them, however, is that their definitions of boy and girl were based on “gender identity” rather than biological sex.
So, when their 11-year-old daughter found out that she was assigned to share a hotel room—and was supposed to share a bed—with a male student who identified as a female, she was understandably caught off guard and uncomfortable. Thankfully, Serena was on the trip, but she was left to try to remedy the situation to protect her daughter’s privacy without upsetting any other students. Meanwhile, her husband, Joe, was forced to learn about the problem from his daughter through a text message.
No student should have their privacy threatened by being assigned to share a room with a member of the opposite sex, and no parent should be kept in the dark about who will room with their children on school trips. These are the issues at the heart of the Wailes’s lawsuit against Jefferson County Public Schools.
Who are Joe and Serena Wailes?
Joe and Serena Wailes are the parents of three beautiful children and live in Jefferson County, Colorado.
D.W., their daughter, was attending a JeffCo elementary school in 2021 when the Waileses first heard about a fifth-grade trip to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
During the next 18 months, the Waileses attended multiple parent meetings about the trip. Meanwhile, D.W.’s excitement for the trip was steadily building.
“Our daughter was extremely excited to go on this trip,” Serena said. “Not only had she heard from other people who had gone on it that really enjoyed going on it, but she just was really excited to get out and explore. She did lemonade stands leading up to the trip so that she could have her own spending money.”
In June 2023, the time finally came for D.W. to embark on the much-anticipated trip. Sadly, things took a turn on the very first evening.
An uncomfortable night
Serena decided to accompany her daughter on the trip, but she did not serve as a chaperone. She was shocked when she received a phone call from her daughter shortly after they had gone to their separate rooms.
“I could tell she had like a quiver in her voice—that she was uncomfortable,” Serena said. “And she says, ‘Mom, my bedmate just informed me that they are a boy, and I don’t know what to do.’”
During the meetings leading up to the trip, JeffCo employees had assured parents that girls and boys would be rooming not only in different rooms but also on different floors. But what JeffCo failed to disclose is that they had redefined “boy” and “girl” in their policy to mean a student’s self-asserted “gender identity” rather than sex.
It turned out that the student whom D.W. was supposed to share a bed with was a male who identified as female. The student was from another school, and JeffCo never informed the Waileses that the student was a male.
JeffCo’s policy violates parental rights
Understandably, D.W. was not comfortable with the idea of sharing private spaces like a room, bathroom, and especially a bed with a male, regardless of that student’s “gender identity.” So, Serena contacted a chaperone on the trip, who then contacted the principal.
Serena also contacted her husband Joe, who later explained how uniquely difficult the situation was for him.
“As a father, it made me feel, in a way, helpless,” Joe said. “You want to protect your child. You want to be able to be there. You want to go get her. And you can’t do that when your child is 2,000 miles away.”
The chaperones asked D.W. if she could simply move to another bed rather than a new room, and while she was still uncomfortable, she agreed to try it for one night so that she could get some sleep. But the chaperones, consistent with district policy, asked D.W. to say that the reason she needed to switch beds was to be closer to the air conditioner.
Once the chaperone and D.W. were back in the hotel room, however, another roommate suggested that the other student also switch to the bed closer to the air conditioner. D.W. was afraid to speak up in front of the roommates on the contentious topic of “gender identity,” so she went into the hall and again told her mom that she was uncomfortable.
Serena stepped in and again asked that D.W. be moved to a new room. Finally, the chaperones agreed to rearrange the rooms so that D.W. was in a room with only one other girl. But they also told her to say that the reason for the room change was because of a sick roommate who needed more space.
The Waileses challenge JeffCo’s unconstitutional policy
JeffCo’s policy put an 11-year-old girl in an uncomfortable and entirely avoidable situation. What’s more, by hiding its policy, JeffCo robbed the Waileses and other parents of the opportunity to exercise their parental rights to make the best decision for their child’s education and privacy ahead of the trip.
Parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children, but JeffCo’s harmful policy violates that right. So, in September 2024, the Waileses and two other families affected by the policy filed a lawsuit against the district.
Initially, a federal district court denied the families’ motion asking the court to stop JeffCo officials from requiring their children to share beds, bedrooms, and shower facilities with students of the opposite sex on school-sponsored overnight trips. But in December 2024, a fourth family joined the lawsuit, and Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a renewed motion for preliminary injunction, asking the district court to reconsider the families’ case.
“School districts should be putting policies out there to protect all children, not some subset of those children,” Joe said. “The policy needs to protect everybody.”
Defending parental rights
Policies that hide important information from parents don’t just violate parental rights. They also harm children by preventing those who know and love them best from making critical decisions about their education, health, privacy, and more.
Unfortunately, JeffCo is far from the only school district to hide critical information from parents about their children. For example, in New Jersey, father Chris Heaps’ daughter was “socially transitioned” by school officials behind his back. The case was dismissed by the trial court, but ADF (with co-counsel Murray-Nolan Berutti LLC) is appealing the dismissal on Chris’ behalf.
Similarly, ADF filed a lawsuit on behalf of Dan and Jennifer Mead after the Rockford Public School District in Michigan actively concealed the fact that it was treating the Meads’ daughter as a boy.
Parents have a fundamental, constitutionally-protected right to make important decisions about their children’s upbringing and education. Your gift today will help defend parental rights across the country.
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