During a sometimes contentious, more than three-hour Loudoun County School Board meeting Tuesday night, dozens of people spoke out about an investigation that’s underway by the Virginia Office of the Attorney General.
The case involves a report that three high school boys were “uncomfortable” when a biologically female student, who identifies as male, changed clothes in a boy’s locker room and recorded their discussion about it.
Specifics about the incident have not been released, but it reportedly took place at Stone Bridge High School.
On May 6, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that he had asked Attorney General Jason Miyares to investigate the case to ensure the school division is upholding every student’s privacy, dignity and safety.
But besides debating this latest high-profile case, the meeting on two occasions became heated, and the board chair had to briefly stop the proceedings when the board believed the session was becoming unruly.
“No rude gestures, no applause, no heckling,” the audience was told after the meeting was stopped when crowd members began applauding and some threw verbal jabs at each other.
Many at the meeting said they were there to show their support for the three boys, but also to call for the repeal of the school board’s Policy 8040, which allows students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity.
When he began the investigation, Miyares weighed in saying the case “is just the latest example of what happens when school boards disregard common sense. The safety, dignity and privacy of every student in Virginia should be nonnegotiable. This is about safety and privacy, not political correctness — and it’s time Loudoun County recognized it.”
“Brave boys that I don’t even know are being investigated because you have created policies that allow girls to go into boy’s bathrooms and locker rooms,” said one woman who spoke before the board. “You sacrificed the safety and well-being of students in favor of a hand full of gender confused people who wish to become something they are not.”
But another woman said transgender people and others deserve legal protection and rights.
“I don’t care if its less than a half a percent of students that are transgender. They still have rights,” she said.
That woman and others in support of the policy disagreed and said the issue is creating a media and community frenzy, driven by political activists who want to see 8040 repealed.
Ultimately, besides listening to the public, the board took no action.
As reported by the Virginia Mercury, Loudoun County’s school policy allows students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identification instead of their biological sex. But Seth Wolfe, the parent of one of the three boys, said his 15-year-old son is being “unfairly targeted for simply asking a basic question that any boy would be asking in that situation.”
“It’s astonishing that Loudoun school officials are subjecting him to a formal investigation for a bogus charge that could derail his life,” Wolfe said in a statement released by the Founding Freedoms Law Center, which is representing the student.
In a 7News report Tuesday, Wolfe criticized LCPS for investigating his son and the other students for expressing their discomfort with the male-identifying student being in the boys’ locker room and said the division’s bathroom policy creates an “unsafe environment” for all students. An attorney with the law center confirmed with the Mercury that Wolfe was the unidentified parent in WJLA’s report.
The division added that the report by 7News contains “false” and “misleading” information. The school system said it would not discuss the specifics of the incident in recognition of students’ privacy but defended its policies and commitment to student safety.
“We reject any characterization that implies our schools are unsafe or that we fail to protect the rights of all students,” the school division stated. “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.”
In 2023, Loudoun County Public Schools announced it was launching a pilot program to support students and staff concerning restroom privacy and safety. The goal was to increase accessibility and allow students a choice to use the multifixture, gender-specific restrooms or single-occupancy restrooms in all LCPS facilities, the division said.
Stone Bridge High School, which Wolfe’s son and the other students attend and where the locker room recording occurred, was not part of the pilot program.
This situation is not the first time Loudoun schools have made headlines for an incident in school bathrooms. In 2021 the school division faced criticism and later a $30 million lawsuit over how it responded after a teenage male student was found guilty of assaulting two female students at two different schools over six months.
To align Virginia school divisions with the governor’s sustained advocacy for parents’ rights, the governor’s administration overhauled the state’s model policies for the treatment of transgender students in 2023.
Some of the key changes included requiring students to use the locker room corresponding to their sex, unless federal laws state otherwise, requiring schools to notify parents if a student is permitted to use a locker room that differs from their biological sex, and allowing parents to opt their child out and use alternative facilities.
WTOP’s Scott Gelman contributed to this report.
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