Federal government opens Title IX investigation into WCU
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Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has made headlines by targeting the United States’ most well-known colleges — those with the largest endowments and lowest admission rates — but now, in the latest twist in a year-long saga, his administration is shifting its attention to Cullowhee.
Trump’s Department of Education notified Western Carolina University earlier this month that it was opening up an investigation into the school based on potential Title IX violations tied to its own investigation of nationally renowned anti-trans advocate Payton McNabb, who recorded a video of a trans woman, Paige LeBlanc, in a public restroom on campus and then posted it on social media.
Under an order issued by Trump in the hours following his inauguration on Jan. 20, only two genders — cis male and cis female — can be officially recognized and, therefore, protected under Title IX. However, according to emails between WCU administrators, the school has indicated it will not follow the order. With two different federal appeals courts rulings backing both sides of the broader argument that speaks to the sex versus gender debate, this case adds fuel to that conversation — a conversation that may end up before The United States Supreme Court.
THE INCIDENT
The facts of the incident at the root of this controversy are agreed upon by LeBlanc and McNabb, according to an investigation into a Title IX complaint LeBlanc filed. Most of the matter in question was also seen in all parts of the world near and far as McNabb’s post on X went viral.
In LeBlanc’s complaint, she states that, on May, 2, 2024, she entered the women’s restroom and was using the last stall in the row when she heard someone enter the restroom and “stop against the far wall next to the door.”
“As I exited my stall I was conscious of the individual (Payton McNabb) facing me as I approached the ‘left-hand’ sink,” the complaint reads. “The individual approached and passed me while I was washing my hands. She passed in front of my emptied stall and faced the sink.”
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Once LeBlanc finished washing her hands and was getting a paper towel, McNabb approached, leading to the brief confrontation seen on McNabb’s video. McNabb questions why LeBlanc is in the bathroom, saying “you’re not a girl.”
“Oh, we’re doing one of these?” LeBlanc said, to which McNabb simply answered, “Yeah.”
“Interesting. I’ve never had this before,” LeBlanc said after a few seconds. “I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry you feel that way.”
“I pay a lot of money to be safe in the bathroom,” McNabb said.
“Me too,” LeBlanc replied.
After a few more words, LeBlanc exited the bathroom.
When the video went viral, people on LeBlanc’s side argued that the interaction shows the harassment trans people endure while simply wanting to use the bathroom they believe best corresponds with their gender, and people on McNabb’s side said it was proof that women don’t feel safe when others some perceive as men use the same restrooms they do.
McNabb later posted a follow-up statement on X saying, “Currently, I’m facing reports to the school for alleged ‘transphobia,’ alongside attempts to tear down my sorority, despite it having nothing to do with it. I believe in everyone’s right to their own opinion, and I shouldn’t face punishment simply because I felt uncomfortable with a man being in our bathroom.”
THE INVESTIGATION
The day after the incident, Dean of Students Betsy Aspinwall sent LeBlanc an email letting her know that she was identified as a “potential victim of Title IX sexual harassment.” The email further spelled out her options.
Both LeBlanc and McNabb submitted Title IX complaints to the university. Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in school programs or activities for any federal funded institution. Title IX, enacted in 1972, includes protections against sexual harassment.
McNabb’s complaint was dismissed by the university before it could be heard. LeBlanc’s was assigned an independent investigator from TNG Consulting, meaning the school’s Title IX coordinator determined there was sufficient information within LeBlanc’s complaint to support charges under the school’s Title IX policy.
A final investigation report for LeBlanc’s case was sent to the parties late last year. According to the report, the evidence considered included 50 video recordings, additional security camera footage, 114 “reports” of the incident and 27 social media posts, although specifics weren’t provided.
LeBlanc did an interview with the investigator, but when McNabb attempted to so remotely, she experienced “connectivity challenges” and ended up supplying a written statement. In that statement, she said that every action she took was out of fear for her safety and in response to the uncomfortable situation she felt LeBlanc had placed her in.
“I did not engage in any name calling, teasing, or hostility,” she wrote. “I did not raise my voice or threaten [LeBlanc] verbally or physically.”
On Jan. 31 of this year, a letter was sent to LeBlanc letting her know that a Title IX hearing board found McNabb “not responsible” for harassing LeBlanc. Basically, the conclusion was that McNabb’s actions were neither sexual nor harassment. Per WCU’s policy, to find that conduct violates its own sexual harassment policy, it must be “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive.”
“The interaction was brief, with calm voice, and took place in one day, including the posting of the video to X,” the letter reads. “We do not find that the encounter in the restroom or the posting of the video violated the Title IX Sexual Harassment Policy and specifically did not find that the actions were severe or objectively offensive since the interaction was brief, voices were not raised, and no threats were made and that the Respondent had a First Amendment right to post the video on X. Because we found that the actions were not severe or objectively offensive, we did not need to decide on whether the actions were pervasive or if they effectively denied the Complainant access to the University’s education program or activity.”
SPEAKING OUT
McNabb is not new to being the public face of anti-trans movements. Last year she publicly supported bills to regulate trans athlete participation in North Carolina public school sports after she claimed to suffer a concussion from a volleyball spiked by an athlete she alleged was a trans female.
In March, McNabb did multiple interviews with conservative media outlets, including thecollegefix.com, which published a story on March 7 about her being kicked out of her WCU sorority and one about the Title IX case March 17. In the March 17 story, Ellis Boyle, McNabb’s attorney, voiced frustration with what he considered to be a so-called independent investigator who was biased and “sympathetic to the cause of the day.”
“It is simply a function of the system that anyone who would hold themselves out as a vendor in this space is almost certainly a self-selected advocate for the ‘progressive’ or agenda-driven way of thinking about the topic,” Boyle said.
Perhaps most notably, Trump spoke about McNabb during his Joint Address to Congress in January, which she attended as a personal guest of First Lady Melania Trump.
LeBlanc is far less accustomed to the spotlight. In her Title IX complaint, LeBlanc alleged that she didn’t know her face was plastered all over the internet until some friends told her the next day.
“Since then, I have worn a mask in public to avoid being recognized due to the fact that millions of people have seen my rights being violated. It has significantly impacted my feeling of safety and privacy on and off campus, and in the community, and has had an impact on overall wellbeing,” LeBlanc said.
“People calling me a pedophile, mentally ill, people saying that if they’d had a gun, it would have gone differently — things like that,” LeBlanc told Smoky Mountain News on May 15.
A MATTER OF ‘SEX’
In her written response sent to the investigator, McNabb recalled her purported injury on the volleyball court, relating it to her experience coming face to face with LeBlanc in a WCU women’s bathroom, ultimately explaining that she is not new to this kind of trauma.
“I am a woman, and I use and seek women’s private facility spaces purposefully,” she wrote.
“Women’s spaces provide me the level of comfort I need to receive my education,” she added.
Part of the final investigation report was an attachment that included Boyle’s responses to the initial draft of the report from the investigator, who was brought in from Colorado. In it, Boyle states that LeBlanc was “born a male, and remained a male on the date in question.”
“The closest the investigator ever came to providing this key context and acknowledging these facts was when the investigator stated Ms. McNabb ‘characteriz[es]’ [LeBlanc] as male. Ms. McNabb does no such thing; it is not a characterization. Complainant is male,” Boyle wrote. “Any investigative report that fails to document that basic fact starts out by missing the foundational principle and entirely skews the lens the event is viewed.”
Coverage of the incident from right-wing outlets mirrors this language, including in interviews with McNabb and Boyle. Those articles consistently refer to LeBlanc as “The male.”
On March, 7, The National Review published an article alleging that WCU was not changing its Title IX policy to comply with Trump’s executive action changing the definitions of “male” and “female.” The story came after the publication was provided with public records obtained by the rightwing “campus watchdog” group Speech First.
Trump’s order, titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” requires entities receiving federal funding to only recognize two sexes, lest they lose that federal funding. This reverses the Biden administration’s stance that Title IX policy would be enforced based on a person’s gender identity, whatever that may be.
Emails obtained by Speech First show that WCU administration were not going to make those changes, citing a Fourth Circuit ruling that prohibits discrimination against transgender students. Those who support Trump’s latest order, including Boyle, argue that a more recent 11th Circuit ruling noted that “sex” should mean only a person’s gender assigned at birth. It may be up to the highest court in the land to clarify the law once and for all.
On May 8, spurred on by the content of the emails between WCU administrators, the U.S. Department of Education announced it was launching a Title IX investigation into the school. A release from the department stated that the investigation was opened amid allegations the school “refused” to comply with Title IX “to ensure sex-separated intimate spaces.” It cites both the opening of an investigation following LeBlanc’s complaint and “credible reports” that WCU allowed a “male to room with a female” in the “girls’ dormitory.”
“WCU’s reported contempt for federal antidiscrimination laws and indifference to, and retaliation against, girls who have spoken up about males invading their intimate spaces is simply unacceptable,” acting Education Department Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in the release. “After fighting for years to secure Title IX protections, women must again fight hostile institutions to ensure their right to equal protection and opportunity in sports, living spaces, and intimate facilities is respected. The Trump-McMahon Department of Education will continue to deploy every lawful means to eradicate this wholly unnecessary and egregious violation of women and girls’ civil rights.”
In a statement provided to The Smoky Mountain News, WCU said it received the notice of investigation from the Department of Education.
“We believe that our campus policies and procedures are compliant with Title IX and all other federal and state laws,” that statement says. “We will work with the [Office for Civil Rights] to fully resolve this complaint.”
