June 15, 2026 12:50 PM UTC

Furries? Nope. Boys in Girls Sports? Nope.

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• by: Colorado Pols

Another ridiculous conspiracy theory about Jefferson County schools can be tossed in the litter box.

As Chalkbeat Colorado reported last week via Colorado Public Radio, boys are not playing girls sports in Jeffco high schools:

When the federal education department announced in March that Jeffco Public Schools had in its view run afoul of anti-discrimination law, it cited one key piece of evidence: rosters indicating 61 boys were on girls’ sports teams.

In a letter to the community this week, Colorado’s second largest school district said no boys were competing on those teams — and offered an explanation.

“Some teams had male managers, trainers, or mascots — not athletes,” the letter said.

“Because the [U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights] never asked us to clarify the role of any individual listed on those rosters, we did not learn of this confusion until the OCR issued a press release. Since that moment, we have repeatedly and respectfully asked the OCR to address this factual error. They have declined to do so.”

The U.S. Department of Education declined to comment for this story.

The Trump administration threatened to pull federal funding from the Jeffco school district because of allegations that it was allowing boys to play girls sports…even though they never bothered to first ask the district if the accusation was accurate. The irony is not lost on us that the “boys in girls sports” hand-wringing turned out to be just boys wearing animal costumes to cheer on their classmates.

At first, the office said Jeffco athletic rosters indicated “that male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams.” A later version of the press release posted on the federal education department’s website walked back that language by adding the words “may” and “up to.”

The department has not answered questions from Chalkbeat about the change. Nor has it answered questions about how it made the determination about the 61 boys.

This stupidity goes back to the 2022 race for governor, when Republican Heidi Ganahl went way off the deep end with her absurd claims that schools in Colorado (but mostly in Jeffco) were infested with “furries.” Spurred on by Jeffco parent Lindsay Datko, who runs a silly organization called “Me First” “Jeffco Kids First,” Ganahl argued — with absolutely NO evidence — that the district was actually encouraging students to wear costumes while imitating their favorite furry friends at school. Datko later filed a libel lawsuit against Colorado Community Media for reporting on her involvement in the conspiracy; that suit was dismissed on account of the reporting being completely accurate.

Datko seems to have been a main driver of this latest bogus investigation about boys being allowed to compete against girls in high school sports. The genesis of this baseless claim was the same as it was during the “furries” conspiracy:

“Parents really rose up and sent us example after example,” Datko said. “Students were coming home and saying that they were sleeping in their sleeping bags to avoid changing in front of their female high school leader, who was of the opposite sex.”

“People say this is happening” is not evidence, but that doesn’t stop grifters like Datko from using awful rhetoric from other right-wing voices (including President Trump) as part of a broader effort to convince Republicans that Democrats and teacher’s unions are scary. In Datko’s case, you don’t need a psychology degree to see that this is mostly about her own desperate need for attention.

Putting “kids first” and attempting to validate ridiculous conspiracy theories are really not compatible efforts. But that’s never been the point.