A federal judge has extended his order preventing Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia from enforcing its suspension of two high school boys over their objection to the presence of a female trans-identified student in the boys’ locker room.
Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted the motion for a preliminary injunction in the case of S.W. et al v. Loudoun County School Board on Friday.
The ruling marks the latest development in ongoing litigation over the 10-day suspension imposed upon students at Stone Bridge High School in the Washington suburbs for objecting to the presence of a trans-identified female student in the boys’ locker room.
Brinkema issued an order last month blocking the school district from enforcing the suspension against the plaintiff students, identified in legal documents as S.W. and J.S., while the federal court weighs whether the school district violated their rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as well as the Virginia Constitution, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Virginia Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Sept. 16 order from Brinkema, appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, was issued on the first day of S.W. and J.S.’s suspension, meaning the 11th graders have been suspended for only one day. Friday’s ruling extends the order prohibiting Loudoun County Public Schools from enforcing the suspension against S.W. and J.S. The law firms representing the plaintiffs reacted favorably to the latest development.
“We are pleased with the result after today’s hearing and appreciative of the time and energy that the judge took in listening to our arguments and crafting a decision,” America First Legal Senior Counsel Ian Prior said in a statement reacting to Friday’s ruling. “We look forward to litigating this case on behalf of our clients.”
Victoria Cobb, president of Founding Freedoms Law Center, claimed that the judge “sees the importance of halting a wrongful punishment so our client continues his education and both boys are ultimately vindicated.”
The controversy dates back to March, when Founding Freedoms Law Center announced that Loudoun County Public Schools was investigating three boys for engaging in “sexual harassment” after the female student using the boys’ locker room recorded a video documenting male students expressing discomfort over her presence in the sex-segregated school facility. One of the boys asked, “Why is there a girl in the locker room?”
In August, several months after the investigation was launched, Founding Freedoms Law Center provided The Christian Post with a statement noting that Loudoun County Public Schools had imposed 10-day suspensions on two of the students. One of the students’ parents, Renae Smith, expressed concern about the implications for her son going forward.
“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,” she said.
Seth Wolfe, the parent of the other plaintiff, also lamented that “the school system is punishing innocent boys with trumped-up charges that could jeopardize their college and career futures” instead of “protecting students’ privacy and acknowledging biological reality.”
Loudoun County Public Schools made national headlines four years ago for implementing a policy that allows trans-identified students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their stated gender identity as opposed to their sex. Courts previously ordered the school district to reverse the suspension of a Christian teacher who spoke at a school board meeting against the policy, which had not yet been passed.
The school district also faced allegations of a cover-up after reports surfaced that one of two sexual assaults that occurred in its high school bathrooms at the hands of a male student took place before the implementation of the policy.
Loudoun County Public Schools has repeatedly defended the policy, citing it as consistent with a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finding that trans-identified students have the right to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their stated gender identity.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
