Written by Alliance Defending Freedom

Published May 8, 2026

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 journeys.

But due to a harmful policy adopted by Jefferson County Public Schools (JeffCo) in Colorado, some students are facing serious privacy violations while attending school-sponsored trips.

Boys and girls sharing hotel rooms on school trips?

While planning for overnight trips, JeffCo regularly informs parents that “girls will be roomed together on one floor, and boys will be roomed together on a different floor.” But what district officials fail to disclose is that district policy allows trip leaders to room a male in a girl’s room just because he identifies as female (and vice versa).

In June 2023, this issue came to a head for the Wailes family. Joe and Serena Wailes had an 11-year-old daughter in fifth grade who was going to attend a JeffCo-sponsored trip to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Leading up to the trip, trip leaders assured parents and students that boys and girls would be staying on different floors. The Waileses were told that their daughter would room with three other girls, but they were not informed that trip leaders had assigned their daughter to share a room with a male student who identified as female.

Serena decided to accompany her daughter on the trip, but she did not serve as a chaperone. During the trip, trip leaders told the students that boys and girls were not allowed to visit each other’s floors without permission.

But on the first night, Joe and Serena’s daughter discovered that the student with whom she was supposed to share a bed was a boy.

Understandably uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a bed with a male student, she snuck into the bathroom and quietly called her mother, who met her in the lobby of the hotel, so her roommates wouldn’t overhear. After she broke the news to her mom, Serena contacted a chaperone on the trip, who then contacted a trip leader.

Instead of quickly changing the room assignments, they asked the Waileses’ daughter to stay in the same room but just move to the other bed. Worse, they instructed her to lie to the other students and say she needed to switch beds to be closer to the air conditioner. But that didn’t work and left her still feeling scared and uncomfortable. So Serena stepped in again and asked to have her daughter moved to a new room. They finally agreed to move the male student and one of the girls to a different room.

Throughout the evening, Jeffco prioritized the male student’s privacy and feelings over Joe and Serena’s daughter’s privacy and comfort.

JeffCo’s policy put an 11-year-old girl in an uncomfortable and entirely avoidable situation. And by hiding its decision to room Joe and Serena’s daughter with a male student, JeffCo robbed them of the opportunity to exercise their parental rights to make an informed decision for their daughter ahead of the trip and prevent the harmful situation.

More violations of privacy and parental rights

Unfortunately, the Waileses are not the only ones who have faced the very real harm caused by JeffCo’s policy.

Bret and Susanne Roller

During the 2022-23 school year, Bret and Susanne Roller sent their son on a four-day, three-night trip called Outdoor Lab, which Jeffco expects all sixth-grade students to attend. The trip takes place at a JeffCo-owned campground in the mountains, and parents are not allowed to attend or chaperone. Students are also not allowed to access their cell phones during the trip.

The Rollers were told their son would be in a cabin with six to 30 other boys, including male high-school or college-aged counselors. But once the Rollers’ son got to the mountain campus, away from home and without any form of communication, he realized that JeffCo had lied.

One of his 18-year-old high school counselors was not male but instead was a female who identified at school as “non-binary.” The Rollers’ son soon found out that this girl was not just sleeping and changing in the same cabin but was also tasked by JeffCo to supervise the boys’ showers, including his.

Rob and Jade Perlman

The Perlmans have a daughter who is a successful basketball player on JeffCo teams. When they heard about the experiences of the Waileses and the Rollers, they became concerned about where—and with whom–their daughter would sleep on overnight athletic trips.

The Perlmans don’t want their daughter to miss out on extracurricular activities, especially those that could help her secure college scholarships. But they also don’t want to be forced to send their daughter on trips where JeffCo cannot ensure that she will only be rooming with students of the same sex.

JeffCo must make things right

Unfortunately, JeffCo has refused to provide a reasonable accommodation for students whose religious beliefs would be violated by sharing overnight rooms or intimate facilities with opposite-sex students. In addition, the district has said it will not inform parents prior to trips if their children are assigned to share a room with a student of the opposite sex, rendering it impossible for parents to make informed decisions regarding their children‘s care and privacy.

In September 2024, ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit challenging Jefferson County Public Schools’ harmful policy on behalf of the Waileses, the Rollers, and the Perlmans. A fourth family was later added to the suit.

What a morning! @ADFLegal attorneys and clients exiting the courthouse below! Jeffco Kids First waiting to greet them! @JeffcoSchoolsCo absolutely does not notify or accommodate students who want to opt out of sharing beds, bunk rooms, and showering spaces with peers and older… pic.twitter.com/y5kUM5nK9Y

— Lindsay Datko (@ldatko) May 12, 2026

But a federal district court dismissed the parents’ claims in August 2025. The court chillingly wrote, “While parents may have the right to instill moral and religious values in their children, parents have no right to replace public education with their own personal views nor a right to control each and every aspect of their children’s education and oust the state’s authority over that subject.” ADF has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.

JeffCo, like all school districts, must respect the rights of parents to make important decisions about their children’s care and upbringing, including whether they share a hotel room, bunkhouse, or shower facilities with the opposite sex.

The bottom line

Policies like Jeffco’s violate the fundamental rights of parents and students. Children should never be assigned to share intimate spaces like hotel rooms and bathrooms with students of the opposite sex, and schools should never hide such critical information from parents.

Original article published by Alliance Defending Freedom.