Education leaders and advocates are speaking out against Linda McMahon, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary, as a sexual misconduct lawsuit involving the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) garners increased interest. 

In October, attorneys filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of five men accusing McMahon and her husband, WWE co-founder Vince McMahon, of ignoring the sexual abuse by a male WWE employee that they endured as teen boys during the 1980s and 1990s. The men worked as “ring boys” who set up and broke down wrestling rings at WWE matches. They allege that WWE officials knew about the abuse they experienced but did not intervene. 

“The sexual misconduct lawsuit — it’s going to get a lot of scrutiny, and I’m very troubled by those allegations,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the labor union representing 1.8 million members. “She’s going to have to respond to them, about whether or not she was complicit in hiding or in covering up sexual assault. How can you be the head of education in America [with these allegations]? It’s antithetical, right?”

Laura A. Brevetti, an attorney for McMahon, provided a statement to The 19th in which she described the civil suit against her client as “baseless” and “filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations.” Brevetti said that the FBI looked into the allegations years ago and “found no grounds to continue the investigation.” 

Along with administering federal funding, guaranteeing all students equal access to education and ensuring schools comply with the law, the Department of Education issues updates to Title IX, a civil rights statute that prevents federally funded schools from practicing sex discrimination, which includes sexual misconduct. The accusations against McMahon have raised questions about whether she’s capable of keeping students safe. School personnel such as teachers and principals are mandated reporters, meaning they have a legal obligation to report suspected cases of child abuse and neglect to the authorities. But McMahon has no classroom experience, having led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

The record of Betsy DeVos, education secretary during that term, has only added to the concerns about McMahon since DeVos was widely criticized for making Title IX revisions that created barriers for students trying to report sexual misconduct. The DeVos guidelines allowed schools to dismiss all but the most severe complaints of sexual harassment, subject complainants to live hearings with cross examinations, ignore cases of sexual violence involving students that occurred off campus and drag out sexual misconduct investigations for so long that, in some cases, students graduated before action was taken. 

In the spring, President Joe Biden’s administration issued new Title IX guidelines that strengthened protections for survivors, but their advocates fear these gains will be reversed during the second Trump administration. Several nominees to his cabinet posts have been accused of sexual misconduct, with Matt Gaetz withdrawing from consideration as attorney general as the allegations against him were scrutinized. A jury has found Trump himself liable for sexual abuse, and dozens of women have accused him of sexual misconduct.

For organizations dedicated to ending sexual violence on K-12 and college campuses, McMahon’s nomination comes as a blow. 

Kenyora Parham, CEO of End Rape On Campus, a nonprofit working to end campus sexual violence by supporting survivors, prevention education and policy reform, told The 19th in a statement that she is outraged that McMahon could be the next education secretary. She urged policymakers and fellow advocates to mobilize against her nomination.

The allegations against her are “not only appalling but disqualifying for a role that demands the utmost integrity and commitment to student safety,” Parham said. “This nomination is a blatant and dangerous move by the Trump administration, signaling a calculated agenda to dismantle the protections afforded by Title IX. Title IX is a vital safeguard that ensures the rights of all students, particularly those who are LGBTQ+, pregnant or parenting and students of color. These protections are . . . crucial for creating an educational environment free from discrimination and abuse.”

Emma Grasso Levine, senior manager of Title IX policy and programs at Know Your IX, a project focused on ending gender-based and sexual violence in schools, said that she’s extremely concerned that McMahon’s nomination could lead to a “Betsy DeVos 2.0 situation.” That means, she said, “someone who is not qualified to lead the Department of Education, whose role, as instructed by the incoming administration, may be to reduce funding or dismantle staffing and key functions of that department that are meant to protect student civil rights.”

Trump has repeatedly said that he will eliminate the Department of Education. On Thursday, Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican representing South Dakota, initiated the process by introducing the “Returning Education to Our States Act” to disband the federal agency. The president-elect also wants to privatize education by increasing students’ access to taxpayer-funded vouchers that would cover some of their expenses at independent secular and religious schools. As chair of the board of the America First Policy Institute, which promotes Trump’s public policy proposals, McMahon has worked toward privatization.

McMahon’s education resume has also cast doubt on her qualifications to lead the department. Current Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona worked as a classroom teacher, school principal, assistant superintendent and education commissioner in Connecticut before Biden nominated him for the post. Also from Connecticut, McMahon served on the Connecticut State Board of Education from 2009 to 2010. At that time, critics wondered if she was qualified to serve, a controversy that grew when McMahon said that she had a bachelor’s degree in education when her degree is actually in French.

McMahon has also sat on the trustee board of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut, off and on since 2004. The Catholic institution announced in 2012 that it was naming its student commons building in the billionaire’s honor following her $5 million gift to the university during one of her two failed bids to become a U.S. senator representing Connecticut. 

Levine called McMahon’s lack of classroom experience and misconduct allegations “incredibly concerning” and questioned how she would enforce Title IX or address complaints filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which addresses claims of discrimination.

Jasmine Bolton, who served as senior counsel in the Office for Civil Rights from 2021 to 2023, also has misgivings. Bolton is now policy director at the Partnership for the Future of Learning, a network of organizations fighting for educational equity and high-quality public schools.

“It does send a message to our children, to youth, when you see people who have either credible allegations of sexual assault or who have suppressed allegations of sexual assault ascending to these heights without ever having to take accountability for their actions,” she said. “It is problematic, especially in this case, there’s someone who will be in charge of overseeing reregulation under Title IX. We expect that they will take aim at Title IX again, if not to address sexual assault provisions, then certainly to address the protections offered to students based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Trump has made it clear that he plans to roll back protections for LGBTQ+ students and to retaliate against schools for teaching critical race theory and gender ideology. Bolton lamented that schools get caught in the crossfire of partisan politics, tailoring Title IX guidelines to the ideology of the administration in power. 

“There’s a special sting that somebody who herself might be investigated under these regulations were she an administrator at a school, whether that’s K-12 or or higher ed, that this is the person who may be changing the rules, making it harder for everyone, harder for schools, harder for students, to create safe environments,” Bolton said. “That is incredibly frustrating.”

Trump has selected several cabinet nominees with sexual misconduct allegations after insinuating that educators are threats to children. In a campaign video last year, he implied that the Department of Education was filled with “people that in many cases hate our children.” Conservatives in recent years have characterized teachers “as groomers,” an appropriation of a term used to describe how pedophiles prime children for abuse. In August, disparaging comments Vice President-elect JD Vance made about teachers during his 2021 Senate campaign resurfaced. He stopped short of calling teachers “groomers” but suggested he didn’t trust educators without children. Singling out Weingarten as a person who “wants to brainwash and destroy the mind[s] of children,” he said that “she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.” 

Despite these attacks on teachers and on her personally, Weingarten, a “mom by marriage,” said that she is willing to reach across the aisle for the sake of the nation’s children because when teachers enter the classroom, they don’t have the option of working with some students and ignoring others. 

“That’s just not who we are as people,” she said. “We make a difference in the lives of kids, and even when there are differing views, you have to be able to engage across the aisle. You can’t say that a disagreement on an issue makes somebody a sworn enemy. That’s who teachers are, and that’s who I am. So the test for me is, ‘What are they going to do about helping kids achieve?’”

In a statement after Trump selected McMahon as the nominee, Weingarten said that the AFT reached out to DeVos at the beginning of her tenure as education secretary and would do the same with the WWE co-founder. But that doesn’t mean the organization won’t resist when appropriate. 

“If they’re going to continue smearing teachers, if they’re going to continue to undermine public education, we will fight that,” Weingarten said. “Period.”