Locker Room Lawsuit Against LCPS Involves Misinformation, Loudoun4All Says

ASHBURN, VA — Loudoun4All, an organization promoting LGBTQ rights, said the families suing Loudoun County Public Schools over a locker room Title IX investigation at Ashburn's Stone Bridge High School knowingly provided misinformation about an interaction with a transgender student.

That comes after the school system provided insight in court on what led to the suspensions of two male students in a locker room encounter with a trans student.

Loudoun Now reported on the school system's filing in the court case over the male students' suspensions, which detailed the district's Title IX investigation with 24 student and staff witnesses. The filing showed witnesses in the Title IX investigation backed up the transgender student’s claims that the two male students had been harassing and discriminating against the student during the school year.

School officials claimed the videos showed the two male students were the "primary aggressors."

Loudoun4All says the male students and their families, attorneys and some media knowingly misrepresented that the students were disciplined solely for "expressing discomfort" about a transgender student in the boys' locker room.

"This deceit has real victims. It has re-traumatized the targeted student, endangered LGBTQ+ youth across the county, and forced LCPS and taxpayers to shoulder the cost of defending against a narrative built on lies," Loudoun4All said in a statement. "It has once again used LCPS students, educators, and families as political pawns in a cynical effort to stoke fear and division."

According to Loudoun4All, the investigation found the transgender student was also investigated and disciplined for filming in the locker room, which violates LCPS policy.

The filing noted a third male student was present for the locker room incident. However, the video indicated his comments toward the transgender student were not the same or as loud as the other two boys, and witnesses did not back claims against him.

Conservative legal groups America First Legal and the Founding Freedoms Law Center are representing the two male students and their families in a case against the Loudoun school district. The plaintiffs claim the school district violated Title IX for suspending the students after they made a complaint about the transgender student in the boys' locker room.

The suspensions of the two male students were paused after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction. However, WJLA reported that the judge ordered the parents seeking the lawsuit to pay a $125,000 bond by Wednesday. One of the students is allowed to attend school while the court case proceeds, while the other has moved away from Loudoun County.

In September, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights said Loudoun County Public Schools violated Title IX guidelines in the case of the male students. The federal investigation claimed the school district did not meaningfully investigate the boys' sexual harassment complaint about a transgender student in the boys' locker room the same way as the transgender student's sexual harassment complaint against the boys was investigated

Federal officials said the school district retaliated against the male students and called for ending the suspensions, among other actions.

Loudoun4All said the 2021 sexual assaults at two high schools were similarly used to attack transgender students and stir political debate. Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle Sears, who is running for governor, has spoken out against the male students' suspensions and gender identity bathroom policies, citing a safety concern of biological men in bathrooms with girls.

SEE ALSO:

• 5 NoVA School Districts Reaffirm Transgender Student Policies In Rebuke To Trump Administration
• Judge Rules On Fairfax Schools Appeal In Gender Policy Lawsuit