Washington
DOJ sues Kansas schools system over policies on trans students
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the school system in Kansas City, Kansas, over its policies on transgender students.
The lawsuit comes more than a year after the Education Department first said it was investigating four districts in Kansas following a complaint from the Defense of Freedom Institute. The conservative group’s complaint alleged the schools had policies preventing disclosure of a student’s “transgender status” to parents without the student’s consent.
Schools in Kansas City, Kansas, have a policy of using students’ preferred names and pronouns. The district also says requests from students who do not wish to involve their parents will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, according to the Justice Department lawsuit.
In April, the Education Department said it found the four Kansas districts in violation of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. The districts violated the privacy law, the department said, by maintaining a policy of not disclosing a student’s gender transition at the parents’ request, though the department did not cite a specific instance where this happened.
The districts did not sign the government’s proposed resolution agreements and, in June, the Education Department said it would work with the Justice Department to bring the districts into compliance.
The district in Kansas City, Kansas, which has more than 20,000 students, disputed in a statement that it was out of compliance with federal law and said it was “disappointed by the DOJ’s decision to file the lawsuit.” It said it wouldn’t comment further because litigation is pending.
Some states — including Idaho and Iowa — have passed laws requiring parents to be notified when students seek to use a different pronoun or name as part of their effort to socially transition genders. Kansas does not have such a law. Meanwhile, a lawsuit is pending over a California statute that barred schools from outing students.
President Donald Trump’s administration has penalized schools that have made efforts to accommodate students based on their gender identity. It has filed lawsuits in California and Minnesota over state policies permitting transgender students to participate in interscholastic sports and opened civil rights investigations into schools and universities over their policies on transgender students.
Tuesday’s lawsuit is the first the administration has filed using FERPA to assert a parent’s right to know about their child’s gender transition. The administration seeks to compel the district to disavow its stated policies around transgender students and to give parents greater access to student records.
“Parental rights are paramount in the operation of America’s public schools, and Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools does not know children better than their own parents,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said. “The Department will not tolerate school districts playing fast and loose with federal law in the service of radical gender ideology.”
Kansas’ attorney general, Republican Kris Kobach, a Trump supporter, first began highlighting Kansas schools’ policies about transgender kids more than two years ago. In a February 2024 news release, he announced that several Kansas districts were allowing “employees to hide from parents the fact that a student may be using a different name or pronouns at school.”
Advocates for LGBTQ+ students say kids who come out as transgender can sometimes face serious consequences at home, such as being kicked out. But critics like Kobach argue that parents shouldn’t be kept in the dark.
Mariana Islands
China presses for answers after a man dies hours after entering ICE custody
The Chinese government is pressing for answers after a Chinese man died hours after being taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a U.S. territory.
Lianyong Wei, 51, died Aug. 23 at a hospital in the Northern Mariana Islands, ICE announced in a news release Tuesday.
Wei was arrested Aug. 21 by the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Public Safety on criminal charges stemming from an alleged assault on a family of five at their home, according to ICE. He was taken into ICE custody the next day pending removal proceedings.
ICE said a guard at the lockup in Saipan found Wei unresponsive during routine morning checks on Aug. 23. He was taken to a hospital emergency room, where he was pronounced dead after “life-sustaining interventions were initiated,” the agency said, noting that the cause of his death is under investigation.
Wei entered the U.S. territory in February 2019 and was authorized to stay for two weeks, according to ICE. U.S. authorities began removal proceedings in July 2026, and Wei’s next hearing had been scheduled for this month.
The Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles said it had been notified of Wei’s death.
“We have expressed serious concerns to the relevant U.S. authorities over this incident and required a timely and thorough investigation into the cause of Mr. Wei’s death, notification of the findings, measures to prevent any recurrence of similar incidents, and assistance to the family of the deceased in handling the aftermath,” the consulate said in a statement.
Wei is at least the fifth Chinese national who has died in the custody of ICE or the U.S. Border Patrol since March 2025, according to tracking by The Associated Press. Two of the first four deaths have been ruled suicides and the other two were the result of medical complications.
At least 57 ICE detainees have died since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, a death rate that has alarmed public health experts, advocates for immigrants and the Mexican government.
ICE hasn’t said whether Wei received the medical intake screening, which the agency promises to detainees within their first 12 hours in custody. Medical experts say a thorough screening is critical to preventing deaths.
It’s unclear why it took ICE more than a week to acknowledge Wei’s death, which was announced by authorities in the Northern Mariana Islands on Aug. 24. ICE has said it aims to issue a news release on detainee deaths within two business days.
The lockup in Saipan has held an average of 18 ICE detainees on any given day this year, according to ICE data.
“Following this incident, the Department is reviewing relevant procedures and will implement any necessary corrective actions to strengthen prevention and response measures,” Northern Mariana Islands corrections commissioner Anthony Torres said in a statement.
DOJ sues Kansas schools system over policies on trans students
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the school system in Kansas City, Kansas, over its policies on transgender students.
The lawsuit comes more than a year after the Education Department first said it was investigating four districts in Kansas following a complaint from the Defense of Freedom Institute. The conservative group’s complaint alleged the schools had policies preventing disclosure of a student’s “transgender status” to parents without the student’s consent.
Schools in Kansas City, Kansas, have a policy of using students’ preferred names and pronouns. The district also says requests from students who do not wish to involve their parents will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, according to the Justice Department lawsuit.
In April, the Education Department said it found the four Kansas districts in violation of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. The districts violated the privacy law, the department said, by maintaining a policy of not disclosing a student’s gender transition at the parents’ request, though the department did not cite a specific instance where this happened.
The districts did not sign the government’s proposed resolution agreements and, in June, the Education Department said it would work with the Justice Department to bring the districts into compliance.
The district in Kansas City, Kansas, which has more than 20,000 students, disputed in a statement that it was out of compliance with federal law and said it was “disappointed by the DOJ’s decision to file the lawsuit.” It said it wouldn’t comment further because litigation is pending.
Some states — including Idaho and Iowa — have passed laws requiring parents to be notified when students seek to use a different pronoun or name as part of their effort to socially transition genders. Kansas does not have such a law. Meanwhile, a lawsuit is pending over a California statute that barred schools from outing students.
President Donald Trump’s administration has penalized schools that have made efforts to accommodate students based on their gender identity. It has filed lawsuits in California and Minnesota over state policies permitting transgender students to participate in interscholastic sports and opened civil rights investigations into schools and universities over their policies on transgender students.
Tuesday’s lawsuit is the first the administration has filed using FERPA to assert a parent’s right to know about their child’s gender transition. The administration seeks to compel the district to disavow its stated policies around transgender students and to give parents greater access to student records.
“Parental rights are paramount in the operation of America’s public schools, and Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools does not know children better than their own parents,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said. “The Department will not tolerate school districts playing fast and loose with federal law in the service of radical gender ideology.”
Kansas’ attorney general, Republican Kris Kobach, a Trump supporter, first began highlighting Kansas schools’ policies about transgender kids more than two years ago. In a February 2024 news release, he announced that several Kansas districts were allowing “employees to hide from parents the fact that a student may be using a different name or pronouns at school.”
Advocates for LGBTQ+ students say kids who come out as transgender can sometimes face serious consequences at home, such as being kicked out. But critics like Kobach argue that parents shouldn’t be kept in the dark.
Mariana Islands
China presses for answers after a man dies hours after entering ICE custody
The Chinese government is pressing for answers after a Chinese man died hours after being taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a U.S. territory.
Lianyong Wei, 51, died Aug. 23 at a hospital in the Northern Mariana Islands, ICE announced in a news release Tuesday.
Wei was arrested Aug. 21 by the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Public Safety on criminal charges stemming from an alleged assault on a family of five at their home, according to ICE. He was taken into ICE custody the next day pending removal proceedings.
ICE said a guard at the lockup in Saipan found Wei unresponsive during routine morning checks on Aug. 23. He was taken to a hospital emergency room, where he was pronounced dead after “life-sustaining interventions were initiated,” the agency said, noting that the cause of his death is under investigation.
Wei entered the U.S. territory in February 2019 and was authorized to stay for two weeks, according to ICE. U.S. authorities began removal proceedings in July 2026, and Wei’s next hearing had been scheduled for this month.
The Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles said it had been notified of Wei’s death.
“We have expressed serious concerns to the relevant U.S. authorities over this incident and required a timely and thorough investigation into the cause of Mr. Wei’s death, notification of the findings, measures to prevent any recurrence of similar incidents, and assistance to the family of the deceased in handling the aftermath,” the consulate said in a statement.
Wei is at least the fifth Chinese national who has died in the custody of ICE or the U.S. Border Patrol since March 2025, according to tracking by The Associated Press. Two of the first four deaths have been ruled suicides and the other two were the result of medical complications.
At least 57 ICE detainees have died since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, a death rate that has alarmed public health experts, advocates for immigrants and the Mexican government.
ICE hasn’t said whether Wei received the medical intake screening, which the agency promises to detainees within their first 12 hours in custody. Medical experts say a thorough screening is critical to preventing deaths.
It’s unclear why it took ICE more than a week to acknowledge Wei’s death, which was announced by authorities in the Northern Mariana Islands on Aug. 24. ICE has said it aims to issue a news release on detainee deaths within two business days.
The lockup in Saipan has held an average of 18 ICE detainees on any given day this year, according to ICE data.
“Following this incident, the Department is reviewing relevant procedures and will implement any necessary corrective actions to strengthen prevention and response measures,” Northern Mariana Islands corrections commissioner Anthony Torres said in a statement.
