The parents of two boys at Loudoun County Public Schools expressed heartbreak and alarm after the school division suspended their sons for questioning why a girl who identifies as male was using the boys’ facilities.
LCPS issued a 10-day suspension against the teenage boys on Friday, according to a Monday statement provided to The Christian Post by the Founding Freedoms Law Center, a socially conservative organization representing the families involved in the case.
“My heart is devastated by the injustice of branding a 16-year-old boy with a guilty determination that could follow him for life — simply because he dared to state the obvious: that his privacy was violated when the opposite sex was allowed in his locker room, and even to the point where he was videotaped secretly,” Renae Smith, the mother of one of the boys, said in a statement.
The school division declared the two teenagers who attend Stone Bridge High School guilty of “sexual harassment” and “sex-based discrimination” under Title IX. One of the boys is not allowed to contact the complainant, and he must also work with the school administration to develop a “correction plan.”
Initially, the school division charged three boys with the same allegations, but only the two Christian teenagers were found guilty, while the third boy was acquitted, the Founding Freedoms Law Center noted.
Seth Wolfe, the father of the other student, claimed that his son is “the latest casualty of Loudoun County’s woke, indoctrination policies.”
“Instead of protecting students’ privacy and acknowledging biological reality, the school system is punishing innocent boys with trumped-up charges that could jeopardize their college and career futures,” the father said in a statement. “Every parent should be alarmed — because if it can happen to our child, it can happen to yours.”
Victoria Cobb, president of the Founding Freedoms Law Center, accused the school division of carrying out a “top-down effort” to “normalize unacceptable privacy invasions” by punishing teenage boys who express concern about having a girl in their changing area.
“We’ve seen time and time again that Loudoun County, if given the opportunity to do the right thing, will instead do the wrong thing,” Cobb stated. “LCPS once again shows it is willing to harm students in the name of woke ideology. Punishing boys for raising legitimate privacy concerns is outrageous.”
Attorneys are preparing the next steps for the students’ defense. Josh Hetzler, who has served as legal counsel to the families, called on the U.S. Department of Justice “to bring action to correct this wrong.”
“By making an example out of these boys and punishing them for complaining about a girl being in their locker room, LCPS shows its defiance of the US Department of Education’s Title IX compliance demands,” Hetzler said.
Loudoun County Public Schools did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
The school division launched an investigation earlier this year after a female student at Stone Bridge High School, who identifies as male, used the boys’ locker room to change. Due to LCPS policies, trans-identifying students are allowed to use the restroom or locker room that aligns with their gender identity.
After gym class in March, the female student used her phone to record several boys who questioned why a girl was changing in their locker room.
According to the Founding Freedoms Law Center, one of the clients reportedly asked: “Why is there a girl in the locker room?” Another boy reportedly told the P.E. teacher and the high school principal that sharing a locker room with a girl made him uncomfortable.
A school division spokesperson said in an earlier statement to CP that LCPS would not discipline students for expressing their beliefs unless their behavior violated the LCPS Student Rights & Responsibilities Handbook for Families and the Student Code of Conduct.
“We reject any characterization that implies our schools are unsafe or that we fail to protect the rights of all students,” the LCPS spokesperson said. “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.”
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that LCPS is one of five Northern Virginia school districts placed on “high-risk status,” stating that federal funding will come from reimbursement only.
The department said that the districts violated Title IX through policies that allow trans-identifying students to use “intimate facilities” that align with their gender identity. In addition, the education department noted that the school divisions refused to sign a proposed Resolution Agreement to resolve their Title IX violations by Friday.
“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny. The Northern Viriginia School Divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a Tuesday statement.
“We have given these Northern Virginia School Divisions every opportunity to rectify their policies which blatantly violate Title IX,” McMahon added. “Today’s accountability measures are necessary because they have stubbornly refused to provide a safe environment for young women in their schools.”
The school districts vowed to uphold their policies on Friday, citing a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling finding that trans-identified students have the right to use bathrooms and changing areas that correspond to their gender identity, reports WJLA.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
