(LifeSiteNews) — The Loudoun County School Board in Virginia agreed to a settlement with two male high school students who had been suspended for objecting to a gender-confused girl in their locker room, attorneys representing the boys announced.
As covered last year by LifeSiteNews, in a video taken by a girl who identifies as a male at Loudoun County’s Stone Bridge High School, three boys can be heard expressing to each other their discomfort with her presence. Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) subsequently launched a Title IX investigation against the boys based on the video.
The father of one of the boys told local media that his son and the others were “questioning why there was a female in the males’ locker room … There were other boys asking the same question. They (LCPS) created a very uncomfortable situation. They’re young, they’re 15 years old. They’re expressing their opinions, and now they’re being targeted for expressing those opinions.”
Last August, two of the three boys were punished with a 10-day suspension for “sexual harassment” and “sex-based discrimination,” ordered to have no contact with the girl, and made to meet with school officials to “determine a corrective action plan.” (The third boy has already been removed from the school by his parents, but would face a similar punishment if he returned, and the family feared this mark on his academic record could impair his college plans.)
Their families sued, securing a temporary injunction of the suspension in September. On March 3, their attorneys at Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC) announced the school board had agreed to a settlement, the details of which are confidential but “our clients are very happy with the result,” they said.
“Meanwhile, even though our case is over, the federal Department of Education and Department of Justice are continuing their efforts to hold Loudoun County Schools accountable for their policies on ‘transgender’ students. Stay tuned for more on that,” FFLC added. “Ultimately, we’re glad that our clients and Loudoun County were able to reach an agreement that can allow our clients to move forward. We hope that, in the future, as a result of the attention brought to this situation and our efforts to help vindicate these boys, Loudoun County will have an even greater incentive to protect vulnerable students from the harms of gender ideology.”
Critics have long warned that forcing girls to share intimate facilities such as bathrooms, showers, and changing areas with members of the opposite sex violates their privacy rights, subjects them to needless emotional stress, and gives potential male predators a viable pretext to enter female bathrooms or lockers by simply claiming transgender status.
Loudoun has been a national focal point for the issue ever since superintendent Scott Ziegler set off a national firestorm for allegedly covering up the rape of a female student by a “transgender” classmate in a girls’ bathroom due to its damaging implications for the LGBT movement. He was convicted in 2023 of “using his official position to retaliate against someone for exercising their rights” by firing a teacher who testified about the situation before a grand jury, but prosecutors eventually dropped charges relating to allegedly lying about having no knowledge of the situation at a school board meeting.
