Loudoun County Public Schools is facing an investigation from the Virginia attorney general after a high school student’s father said officials with the school district opened an investigation into his son and two other boys because they privately expressed discomfort with a biologically female student using their locker room.
The female student filmed the boys, a violation of LCPS rules prohibiting recordings in locker rooms, but the district did not say if that student faced an investigation as well.
Loudoun County, an affluent northern Virginia area with a school district that previously came under fire for how it handled a serial student sex offender, reportedly launched a Title IX investigation into three high school boys who were talking among themselves in a locker room about a male-identifying female student who had been using the boys’ locker room. The female student filmed the boys in the locker room and showed the recording to school officials, triggering the Title IX investigation of them, according to WJLA-TV.
LCPS said in a statement sent to the Washington Examiner that the report contained “false and misleading information presented in a biased manner from a single source,” but did not deny that the male students were facing an investigation or whether the female student would be disciplined for violating LCPS rules.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, is investigating the school division’s conduct, his office and Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) jointly announced Tuesday.
“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,” Youngkin said. “Even more alarming, the victims of this violation are the ones being investigated—this is beyond belief. I’ve asked Attorney General Miyares to investigate this situation immediately so that every student’s privacy, dignity and safety are upheld.”
Miyares added, “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.”
For some time now, the girl in question, who identifies as male, has been using the boys’ locker room and is permitted to by school board policy despite President Donald Trump’s executive orders protecting single-sex spaces, the father of one of the 15-year-old boys allegedly under Title IX investigation told WJLA-TV.
According to the boy’s father, in March, the female student used her cell phone after gym class to record his son in the boys’ locker room at Stone Bridge High School, the same school where a biological boy sexually assaulted a female classmate in the girls’ bathroom in 2021.
The three boys, however, are the ones in trouble, not the girl who recorded them in violation of the school’s rules, per WJLA-TV’s reporting. LCPS policy prohibits student usage of cellphones in school locker rooms, unless there is an emergency, and explicitly bans video recording.
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“Even if it was somebody of the same sex, I believe that this is an invasion of their privacy,” the father said of anyone videotaping in a private place on school grounds.
When questioned, LCPS did not disclose to the Washington Examiner whether the girl is facing any disciplinary action for violating the school rules against filming nor explained what Title IX protections would apply in this case. Title IX protects the privacy of sex-separated spaces and appears to be at odds with LCPS letting a biological girl infiltrate a male-only changing area. The Trump administration reversed a Biden-era effort to redefine Title IX to include gender identity.
LCPS, the father said, is looking into whether the boy and his two friends sexually harassed the female student after they talked about being uncomfortable with the girl’s presence in their locker room. The school district, in response to the Washington Examiner’s inquiry, would not explain how their discussion amongst themselves constitutes sexual harassment.
“I don’t think my son should be punished for expressing his First Amendment right and being able to ask questions,” the father said. “They were having a conversation with their peer group. They weren’t directly asking or interacting with this other student, and just the fact that they can’t ask those simple questions, and then if they do, they’re being punished in a way where now we have some serious charges that can affect his future here going forward.”
Asked why LCPS is investigating these three boys who appear to be the victims, not the perpetrators, of sexual harassment in this situation, the school district sent the Washington Examiner a lengthy statement objecting to the allegations.
“To be absolutely clear,” LCPS said, the district does not investigate or discipline students based on personal beliefs, “provided those expressions do not violate policies prohibiting hate speech, discriminatory language, threats, or other forms of harmful or disruptive conduct.”
However, LCPS will investigate and may take disciplinary action when student behavior violates the student handbook outlining code of conduct, the LCPS statement said.
“As WJLA is aware, because this matter could result in discipline, LCPS will not discuss the specifics of the incident publicly,” the district declared. “Student privacy is a fundamental right protected by both policy and law, and LCPS is firmly committed to upholding that principle without exception. Our decision not to comment on the matter should not be taken as license for any news organization to determine what the facts are without verification.”
LCPS also took aim at Miyares, who was quoted in WJLA-TV’s initial article saying the school district is weaponizing Title IX, which is meant to protect students from sexual harassment, to go after the “vulnerable” young boys.
“They’re 15 years old,” Miyares told WJLA-TV. “We all were teenagers at one point. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it would be to have a member of the opposite sex in the locker room where people were obviously changing clothes, and then later, on top of that, recording it.”
In the statement, the school district said, “It is also deeply disheartening to see an elected official rely solely on this media report to publicly criticize LCPS.”
“LCPS will not engage in public discourse that misrepresents our policies or the facts of a student matter—especially when doing so compromises student privacy, safety, and dignity,” the statement said. “LCPS policies are grounded in and guided by applicable state and federal law, including the legal precedent established by Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board in the Fourth Circuit, which is applicable case law and governs decisions made in Virginia. We trust the Attorney General is aware of these applicable laws.”
A few months after the 2021 sexual assault at Stone Bridge High School, the LCPS School Board passed Policy 8040, which allows students to access school restrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their “consistently asserted gender identity.”
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In a lawsuit later lodged against LCPS, the Stone Bridge High victim accused the school system of covering up the sexual assault to push the passage of Policy 8040.
While awaiting trial for the first attack, the assailant was transferred to another LCPS school and subsequently sexually assaulted a second victim. There was a third incident, according to statements in criminal court, though charges weren’t pressed.
The Family Foundation of Virginia’s Founding Freedoms Law Center, a conservative legal group, announced on Tuesday that it is defending two of the sophomore boys against the Title IX complaint. The non-profit’s press release says the female student filed the complaint after she secretly video recorded several boys in the locker room discussing discomfort and confusion about her changing clothes alongside them.
Seth Wolfe, one of the student’s fathers, said, “My 15-year-old son is being unfairly targeted for simply asking a basic question that any boy would be asking in that situation. It’s astonishing that Loudoun school officials are subjecting him to a formal investigation for a bogus charge that could derail his life.”
Josh Hetzler, legal Counsel for Founding Freedoms Law Center and the attorney representing Wolfe, said: “This is yet another egregious example of how LCPS continues to defy state law on transgender policies as well as President Trump’s recent executive orders. These high school boys did absolutely nothing wrong, and LCPS needs to end this baseless investigation immediately.”
None of the nine LCPS School Board members, Superintendent Aaron Spence, or the district’s Title IX coordinator, Christopher Moy, responded to requests for comment.
The Virginia Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office were also contacted for comment.
LCPS is currently under federal investigation for its gender identity policies “related to the use of intimate, sex segregated facilities” and whether they violate Title IX, according to documents from America First Legal Foundation.