Suspensions Paused In Transgender Locker Room Investigation

ASHBURN, VA — The suspensions of two male students at Loudoun County Public Schools are paused amid the continuing court case over their boys locker room encounter with a transgender student.

On Friday, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to America First Legal and the Founding Freedoms Law Center, which are representing the two male students. The temporary measure pauses enforcement of the two students' suspension while the court case proceeds. A previous temporary restraining order in September had first paused enforcement of the suspension.

One of the students will continue attending school during the case — the other has moved away from the district. Under the preliminary injunction, LCPS cannot enter a Title IX sexual harassment finding on both students' records.

As reported by WJLA, a judge ordered the parents seeking the lawsuit to pay a $125,000 bond by Wednesday.

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

Advocates for LGBTQ+ students have said the boys were harassing the transgender student, who they believe was the victim. A statement from Loudoun4All noted that the transgender student has also faced a suspension for recording the locker room encounter.

In September, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights said LCPS violated Title IX violation against the male students. The federal investigation claimed the Loudoun County 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. Federal officials said the school district retaliated against the male students and called for ending the suspensions, among other actions.

LCPS and four other Northern Virginia school divisions have been under fire by the Trump administration over their gender identity bathroom policies. The federal government threatened to withhold federal money for Title I schools, special education and nutrition programs if the school districts did not revoke their policies by Aug. 15. Fairfax and Arlington's school districts filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, but that case was dismissed and an appeal was rejected.

Since Aug. 19, the U.S. Department of Education has put the five Northern Virginia school districts on "high-risk status." That means federal funding to these districts can be requested through reimbursement only.

The school districts have cited Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board case as the federal standard allowing their gender identity bathroom policies. That case involved a transgender student fighting a Virginia school district on allowing him to use the boy's bathroom that matches his gender identity. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm, who claimed the school district's action violated Title IX's Equal Protection Clause.