(LifeSiteNews) — The thing we were told can never happen has, once again, happened. From National Review:
Sex offender Richard Kenneth Cox claimed to be transgender in order to access women’s bathrooms and locker rooms in Virginia where he exposed himself to women and young girls. When he reached out to a local school board member using an alias to complain about a pool’s locker-room policy and the alleged transphobic treatment he faced, he received a sympathetic reply.
Kathleen Clark, a board member at Arlington School Board, was emailed by Cox (who used the name “Riki Cox” in his communications with her). The sex offender stated that he had a right to use the female facilities; Clark emailed back agreeing with him wholeheartedly and telling him that she hoped he “did not experience transphobic statements from the staff. You should be able to use the showers and changing rooms you are most comfortable using.”
NR noted that it is “unclear whether Clark knew Cox was a sex offender.” What is clear is that Cox was able to gain “unfettered access to shower and expose himself around women and girls” not only in a pool locker room operated by Arlington Public Schools, but at female facilities elsewhere in the state as well.
A number of parents complained about this, prompting Cox to email Clark on October 28, 2024, referring to himself as a member of the “transgender community” and condemning women who objected to his presence, stating that those women should be forced to leave and “use the single locker room” rather than himself:
They are the ones that should be isolated before casting off me or other [so-called] transgender people trying to be part of our community and not be treated like freaks. I am writing you because there are multiple people running for School Board this year who claim to support the rights of [so-called] LGBT people, and I want to know what you will do to reverse this decision of the Washington Liberty Swimming Pool before I cast my vote.
As NR reported, Cox is referring to a rule put in place by Washington-Liberty “after multiple women reported seeing an exposed male in the locker room showers.” Clark, as Cox clearly suspected, turned out to be an easy mark. She emailed him back to boast about her LGBT credentials:
For background, I have worked with Turnout.org in SF in my role as Co-Chair of one of the Equality & Belonging groups at Gap Inc. We put together a transgender/non-binary competency training for our E&B teams last year to help educate folks on how to be supportive for their children and an ally to the community … my expectation is that our community and school system are inclusive.
Eager for the sympathetic ear, Cox emailed Clark back telling her that he was “literally” asked “how much longer I was going to be in the shower, and directed other patrons to use the individual changing room while I was in the full locker room. This is again sending the message that a [so-called] transgender person is a freak and I guess not normal and beautiful like everyone else.” Clark told him that she agreed with assertion that the staff needed “training” and told him that she had contacted Arlington Gender Identity Alliance as well as several Virginia Democrats to make it happen.
As it turns out, Cox is a convicted and registered sex offender who is now “facing more than 20 charges related to his visits to Arlington Public School’s Washington-Liberty High School … multiple parents have told National Review that Cox simply stood in the locker room, exposed, for long periods of time.” One mother told NR that she “encountered Cox with her 9-year-old daughter after her daughter’s swim practice in September 2024” and that his genitals “and legs were fully exposed to anyone walking through the entrance.”
“Only in Arlington Public Schools — long beholden to transgender madness — could a registered sex offender expose himself in two different high school locker rooms shared by young girls and shortly thereafter correspond with school board members to complain about the putatively insensitive treatment he received,” Vice President and Legal Fellow at Defending Education Sarah Parshall Perry stated.
“Richard Cox complained to school board member Kathleen Clark he had been treated like a ‘freak’ and offended by pool staff when they asked him how long he planned to loiter in the locker room and instructed other patrons to single-use locker rooms. Inconceivably, after these email exchanges, Cox went on to expose himself six more times before his ultimate arrest,” he added. “The feckless administrators of Arlington County and APS instituted policies permitting individuals to use school restrooms and locker rooms based on their chosen gender identity — policies that enabled this insanity.”
The district clarified that Clark was speaking for herself rather than the board in this situation, but her emails are illustrative nonetheless. How many times does this have to happen before the safety of women and girls is prioritized over the feelings of gender-confused men? How many sex offenders will be permitted to utilize the acceptance of gender ideology by progressives to gain access to vulnerable children in spaces where they are frequently at their most vulnerable?
Clark likely did not know that Cox was a sex offender – but she assumed, the moment he identified himself to her as “transgender,” that his right to strip down in front of women and children trumped the right of those women and children not to see male genitals in their private spaces. His feelings meant everything to her – their feelings, and safety, meant nothing. Clark’s ignorance of Cox’s crimes do not change the fact that it is precisely people like herself that give sex offenders like Cox the opportunity to strike again.
