The state of Virginia is investigating reports that a school district is charging three high-school boys with sexual harassment after a transgender student secretly took video of them in the boys’ locker room.
Recorded in Stone Bridge High School in ultra-woke Loudoun County, the video showed the boys committing the unpardonable offense of expressing discomfort with the girl’s presence in the locker room.
“It’s deeply concerning to read reports of yet another incident in Loudoun County schools where members of the opposite sex are violating the privacy of students in locker rooms,” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a press release. “Even more alarming, the victims of this violation are the ones being investigated — this is beyond belief.”
Youngkin directed state Attorney General Jason Miyares to investigate the matter. Both men are Republicans.
Gender, Guys, and Videotape
WJLA reported Monday that “a female student, who identifies as male, has been using the boys’ locker room [at Stone Bridge High School] for some time now.”
The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC) is representing the boys and their parents. They stated in a May 6 press release:
The female student filed a complaint to school officials after she secretly video-recorded several boys in the locker room, in which some were discussing among themselves discomfort and confusion about why there was a girl changing in their locker room. One of our clients (whose identity is being withheld for his protection) simply said “Why is there a girl in the locker room?” The other boy had gone to the P.E. teacher and the Principal beforehand to express discomfort over a girl sharing the locker room with the boys.
Unfortunately, these authority figures’ hands were tied by Policy 8040 of Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). That policy demands that students “be allowed to use the facility that corresponds to their consistently asserted gender identity.”
Public Relations
Fortunately, however, the boys have parents who stick up for them and believe they have done nothing wrong. In addition to engaging FFLC, the parents have been making their case in the media and to the school board.
“I think the policy itself creates an unsafe environment for all kids at all levels,” the father of one of the boys told WJLA.
He said:
I have a daughter that’s in high school as well, and if there was a male in there videotaping her in the locker room, I would have issues. If it’s my son and there’s a female in the locker room videotaping, I have issues. Even if it was somebody of the same sex, I believe that this is an invasion of their privacy.
He also expressed concern that a finding of sexual harassment would “follow” his son for the rest of his life.
One of the boys’ mothers spoke at Tuesday’s school-board meeting, reported WJLA, saying:
I am here to speak on behalf of my son, who’s been wrongfully accused of a Title IX violation. In truth, he is a victim of a Title IX violation ignored and unsupported by the very system that is supposed to protect him.
And the father of one boy said that he’s considering leaving Loudoun County over the school’s investigation, which has caused his son to think about dropping out of school. He told WJLA Wednesday:
Loudoun County Public Schools is just taking the easy way out instead of fixing the problem from the root…. They’re not fixing the problem. They’re creating more problems.
This county is too liberal for me. I can be the most liberal person on the face of Earth, but when it comes to family, I am the most conservative.
Investigating the Investigator
LCPS is keeping as mum as possible on its investigation — except to accuse WJLA of spreading lies. In a statement to the Daily Caller, LCPS said it could not discuss the situation because of student-privacy concerns. However, it claimed that WJLA’s initial story “contains false and misleading information presented in a biased manner from a single source.”
WJLA countered Wednesday that it had “gathered information over multiple days from multiple credible sources” before publishing the story. Moreover, the LCPS superintendent, school board, and public-relations department all failed to respond to WJLA’s inquiries over “several days” before the story went to press. As of Wednesday, seven of the nine board members had responded, but only one answered the station’s questions.
LCPS also told the Daily Caller that it
would not investigate or discipline students based on their personal opinions, thoughts, or beliefs, provided those expressions do not violate policies prohibiting hate speech, discriminatory language, threats, or other forms of harmful or disruptive conduct. [Emphasis added.]
Of course, to the far-left Loudoun County school board, having the temerity to ask why a male-identifying girl is in the boys’ locker room surely qualifies as “hate speech.”
LCPS is already the subject of a federal investigation into whether its bathroom and locker-room policies themselves violate Title IX, pursuant to President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order. Now it faces additional scrutiny from Richmond.
Miyares called LCPS “a school district that tries to be so open-minded their brain falls out.” He stated in a press release:
This 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 non-negotiable. This is about safety and privacy, not political correctness — and it’s time Loudoun County recognized that.
