A school system in Connecticut that's at the center of an ongoing legal fight over allowing transgender student athletes to participate in competitive girls' sports is being investigated by the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Education confirmed Tuesday, adding a new flashpoint in the national debate over trans girls’ participation in youth sports.
James Demetriades, the mayor of Cromwell, said the town's school system could lose nearly $1 million in federal special education funding if the department determines it’s in violation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that forbids discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal assistance.
The mayor, a Democrat, said Monday the school district would be ineligible for the state’s athletic conference if it didn't allow student athletes to compete on sex-segregated sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
He said the district is currently following “all applicable state and federal law as well as the rules for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference," the governing body for secondary school athletics in the state. In an interview on Tuesday, Demetriades said Cromwell currently has “no gender diverse” high school CIAC athletes.
“We don’t know why Cromwell was targeted for this action,” Demetriades said in a statement on Facebook. He said the investigation also includes restroom and locker room usage.
CIAC's policy of allowing transgender girls to compete in girls high school sports was first challenged in 2020 by four runners who said they were unfairly forced to race against transgender sprinters from Cromwell and Bloomfield. CIAC argued its policy is designed to comply with a state law that requires all high school students be treated according to their gender identity. It has also said the policy is in accordance with Title IX.
While a federal appeals court in 2022 dismissed the plaintiffs' challenge to CIAC’s policy, saying they lacked standing and had not been deprived of a “chance to be champions,” the suit was later revived in 2023 and is currently pending. It could be ready for a trial in 2026.
The head of the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, Craig Trainor, said in a statement that the investigation was looking at whether Cromwell's policies were “depriving girls and young women of equal athletic opportunities.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon added that, “This Administration will fight on every front to protect women’s and girls’ sports.”
A community of more than 14,000, Cromwell is about 20 minutes south of the capital, Hartford. A rally in support of transgender youth was planned Tuesday evening at Cromwell High School.
In 2019, during President Donald Trump's first term, the Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation into the policy in Connecticut that allows transgender high school athletes to compete as the gender with which they identify. It determined the actions of the CIAC, Cromwell and several other communities in Connecticut resulted in “the loss of athletic benefits and opportunities for female student-athletes.”
Days after taking office for his second term, Trump signed an executive order titled “ Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports," which states that all funds from educational programs “that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” will be rescinded.
In his post, Demetriades asked state officials to help hold the town harmless from liability and intervene if Cromwell is sued by the Department of Justice.
In March, the Department of Education opened an investigation into Portland Public Schools, Oregon’s largest school district, over allowing a transgender athlete to compete on a high school girls’ track-and-field team.
FILE - Bloomfield High School transgender athlete Terry Miller, second from left, wins the final of the 55-meter dash over transgender athlete Andraya Yearwood, far left, and other runners in the Connecticut girls Class S indoor track meet at Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Conn., Feb. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb, File)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
