Federal complaint against new girls-only STEM school in Lexington says it’s unfair to boys.

Federal Department of Education sex discrimination investigations have been opened on Fayette County Schools’ new all-girls elementary STEM program and four female-only STEM programs at the University of Kentucky following complaints from a Michigan professor.

Officials in the Department’s Office of Civil Rights confirmed in letters to professor Mark Perry dated Friday and April 30 that the office was investigating his complaints about the elementary school set to open in the fall and about the UK programs. Determinations have not been made on the merits of the complaints, the letters said.

Title IX is a federal law that says “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

Perry said that in filing the Title IX complaints he is trying to protect federally-guaranteed civil rights of boys in Kentucky, who he said are illegally being denied educational benefits based on their sex that will be offered exclusively to girls in Kentucky.

Lexington’s all-female science, technology, engineering and math academy for kindergarten through eighth grade is initially expected to open this fall in the building that once housed Linlee elementary school on Spurr Road.

Fayette Schools spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall on Monday said the district “received correspondence from the Office of Civil Rights and look forward to working with them on a resolution, however it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time. “

“Our district is very excited about the planned Girls STEM School as a research-based strategy to address the persistent underrepresentation of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, especially as it pertains to women of color,” she said.

Perry has filed Title IX complaints against other schools across the country in the last year, according to media reports. He said he had filed 130 complaints that have resulted in 72 federal investigations of Title IX violations and at least 15 of those had resulted in changes to programs.

“I’ve been filing complaints for Title IX violations out of a sense of social justice, fairness, and gender equity,” said Perry.

“The Fayette County School District’s Girl Only STEM School is a perfect case study that illustrates the hypocritical double standard in our education systems for discrimination,” Perry told the Herald-Leader. “...such a school illegally violates the federally-guaranteed civil rights of boys who are being treated as second-class citizens and being denied educational opportunities that are illegally being provided exclusively for girls in Kentucky.”

By receiving federal financial assistance from the Department of Education, Fayette County Public Schools is required to enforce Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination, including sex discrimination against males, he said.

“It is ... my opinion that the only way for Fayette County to meet its Title IX obligations and not violate the civil rights of boys in Kentucky would be to open its STEM school to all genders, or open an equivalent but separate boy-only STEM school,” he said.

In addition to the Fayette complaint, Perry, a professor at University of Michigan-Flint, alleges the University of Kentucky programs illegally violate Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination against males.

The Title IX investigation at UK involves a girls-only engineering high school summer camp, UK’s women in engineering day for high school girls, a single-gender, female-only program called Lunch with Society of Engineers, and the female-only Sarah Bennett Holmes Award which annually recognizing one female faculty member and one female staff member.

UK spokesman Jay Blanton said Monday that U.K. had received the complaint and would respond “at the appropriate time.”

“We believe our programs are in full compliance with the law,” Blanton said.

Fayette Superintendent Manny Caulk announced last week that he had hired a principal for the Girls STEM program.

In February, Fayette district officials said a newly constructed building is eventually planned for the girls STEM school and could open in 2023, but they didn’t announce a location.

In the letters to Perry about the Fayette schools district and UK, federal officials said they would be a neutral fact-finder.

They said if the schools want to resolve the complaints before the investigation was complete, they would work to negotiate agreements.