LCPS investigating students who oppose trans locker room policy

A father accused Loudoun County Public Faculties in Virginia of concentrating on his son after the district launched a Title IX investigation towards the boy and two different teenagers caught on digital camera expressing discomfort about sharing a locker room with a woman who identifies as male.

The Founding Freedoms Legislation Heart, the authorized arm of The Household Basis, a socially conservative group, represents two highschool sophomores and their dad and mom.

LCPS opened the Title IX investigation towards the 2 teenagers and one different boy for “sexual harassment,” in line with the authorized arm’s Tuesday assertion. 

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“My 15-year-old son is being unfairly targeted for simply asking a basic question that any boy would be asking in that situation,” Seth Wolfe, the daddy of one of many youngsters, mentioned in an announcement.

“It’s astonishing that Loudoun school officials are subjecting him to a formal investigation for a bogus charge that could derail his life,” Wolfe added. 

The Washington D.C.-area college district has a coverage that permits trans-identifying college students to make use of the restroom or locker room meant for the other intercourse. The coverage additionally states that faculty workers members are to make use of a trans-identifying pupil’s chosen title and pronouns “regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student’s permanent educational record.”

As WJLA reported this week, a feminine pupil at Stone Bridge Excessive Faculty who identifies as male was allowed to alter within the boys’ locker room. After gymnasium class at some point in March, the coed used her cellphone to file a number of boys who questioned why a woman was of their locker room.

In line with the Founding Freedoms Legislation Heart, one of many purchasers, whose title has not been revealed, reportedly requested: “Why is there a girl in the locker room?” One other boy informed the P.E. trainer and the highschool principal that he was uncomfortable altering within the locker room with a woman. 

The authorized heart is asking the varsity district to finish its investigation towards the boys.

“This is yet another egregious example of how LCPS continues to defy state law on transgender policies as well as President Trump’s recent executive orders,” Josh Hetzler, authorized counsel for the legislation heart and the Wolfe household’s legal professional, mentioned in assertion.

“This high school boy did absolutely nothing wrong, and LCPS needs to end this baseless investigation immediately,” the legal professional declared. 

Virginia Legal professional Common Jason Miyares additionally commented on the state of affairs, in line with WJLA, stating that insurance policies like those at LCPS are placing younger girls and boys in an “untenable position.” 

“I think this is an example, yet again, a school district that tries to be so open-minded their brain falls out,” Miyares declared. “The fact that it’s 2025 and there are people that are advocating and pushing for members of the opposite sex to be in a teenager’s locker room, and they think somehow that’s being open-minded and tolerant?”

A spokesperson for LCPS informed CP that WJLA’s report accommodates “false and misleading information presented in a biased manner from a single source.” The general public info officer for the varsity district additionally accused Miyares of counting on a sole media report back to publicly criticize LCPS. 

“We reject any characterization that implies our schools are unsafe or that we fail to protect the rights of all students,” the LCPS spokesperson informed CP. “We remain steadfast in our legal and ethical obligation to uphold the rights of every student and will continue to create and nurture an environment that is welcoming and accepting for all students, so that everyone has the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed.”

The spokesperson additionally claimed that LCPS wouldn’t examine or self-discipline college students primarily based on their private opinions until their conduct violates LCPS’ Pupil Rights & Obligations Handbook for Households and Pupil Code of Conduct. 

Because the state of affairs at Stone Bridge Excessive Faculty may end in disciplinary motion, the spokesperson declined to debate the specifics of the matter publicly, citing issues in regards to the college students’ privateness.

Earlier this yr, the U.S. Division of Training confirmed it was investigating LCPS following a criticism from American First Authorized that accused Loudoun and a number of other different college methods of violating Title IX by permitting trans-identifying college students to make use of locker rooms and bogs primarily based on gender identification.

The investigation just isn’t the primary time LCPS insurance policies have garnered nationwide media consideration. 

In Could 2021, a male pupil at Stone Bridge Excessive Faculty wore a skirt and entered the ladies’ rest room, the place he then proceeded to sexually assault a feminine pupil. The coed was transferred to a different highschool within the district, Broad Run Excessive Faculty, the place he assaulted one other feminine pupil just a few months later. 

Throughout a June 2021 college board assembly, dad and mom and neighborhood members objected to Coverage 8040, which permitted trans-identifying college students to make use of the bogs and locker rooms of their selecting. The Loudoun County Faculty Board in the end authorised Coverage 8040 in August 2021, two months earlier than the sexual assault at Broad Run Excessive Faculty occurred.

Then-Superintendent Scott Ziegler denied through the June 2021 assembly {that a} sexual assault had ever taken place in bogs inside the college district. A particular grand jury report launched in 2022 mentioned that this assertion from Ziegler was a “bald-faced lie.”

“The superintendent later claimed he ‘was viewing the question in light of … policy 8040,'” the report reads. “Per the aforementioned Teams meeting, we know the superintendent learned shortly after the incident that the Stone Bridge assault was stated to be related to policy 8040.”

The district fired Ziegler following the discharge of the particular grand jury report, which had accused LCPS directors of “looking out for their own interests” and mendacity to oldsters to quell controversy over the trans rest room coverage. 

In Could 2021, the varsity district positioned a Christian trainer on depart after he spoke out towards the proposed Coverage 8040 earlier than it was enacted and mentioned he would not affirm transgender identities of scholars. The college district later reversed the suspension and paid $20,000 as a part of a authorized settlement.