Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has referred Loudoun County Public Schools to the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education following a state Title IX investigation into the school system’s alleged mishandling of a locker room incident involving a transgender student illicitly filming three sophomore boys.
LCPS had brought Title IX sexual harassment allegations against the high school boys, aged 15, after they privately objected to sharing a locker room with a biological female, who was permitted to be there under the school’s transgender policy. In violation of LCPS rules on video recording and possibly state privacy law, the transgender student secretly taped their conversation, while some of the boys were changing, and submitted the video as evidence to school officials. The boys, however, are the ones facing Title IX proceedings.
In a press release announcing the referral to federal authorities, Miyares’s office said Monday its own investigation into LCPS’s conduct found “significant concerns” regarding potential Title IX abuses, unlawful retaliation, and viewpoint discrimination.
“The investigation reveals a disturbing misuse of authority by Loudoun County Public Schools, where students appear to have been targeted not for misconduct, but for expressing their discomfort for being forced to share a locker room with a member of the opposite sex,” Miyares, a Republican, said in a statement.
The state’s findings indicate that LCPS initiated a retaliatory Title IX investigation against the three male students at Stone Bridge High School. According to the Virginia attorney general’s office, the boys, who are Christian and Muslim, raised faith-based objections to LCPS Policy 8040, which allows students to access otherwise sex-separated school facilities corresponding to their “consistently asserted gender identity.”
“Title IX was never meant to be used as a weapon against free speech or religious convictions,” Miyares added. “Every student in Virginia deserves the right to speak openly, think freely, and live according to their conscience without fear of retaliation. Protecting those rights is not political—it’s foundational to who we are as Americans.”
Miyares’ office noted persistent reports that the school system in northern Virginia has taken “adverse and potentially unlawful action” against parents, teachers, and community advocates who are speaking out at school board meetings in support of the accused boys.
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Accordingly, LCPS and the county’s school board are being referred to the U.S. Justice and Education departments’ respective civil rights offices for further investigation.
In an interview with FOX 5 DC this week, Miyares said, upon reviewing the video in question, his office concluded that the accusations against the boys involved are unfounded. The footage does not show discriminatory or derogatory behavior, Miyares said, but simply shows the boys asking the transgender student recording them without their consent to leave the locker room.
During the March 19 incident, the three boys under Title IX investigation were heard questioning, among themselves, the biological female’s presence. “There’s a girl in here?” one boy asked. “I’m so uncomfortable,” another said.
“Title IX is incredibly serious. It attaches to your academic record. It could lead to potential expulsion. It follows you throughout your academic career,” Miyares told FOX 5 DC. “And so these young teenagers, simply for voicing their concerns that a member of the opposite sex was in their locker room, now they had the full weight of Loudoun County Public Schools on their shoulder, coming after them and potentially facing expulsion.”
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On the day after the locker room privacy case gained public attention in early May, the same student who recorded the boys filed a separate complaint about an unrelated “misgendering” incident from over a year ago. Miyares suggested that this year-old allegation could show a pattern of intimidation against the boys.
“Is misgendering someone sexual harassment under Title IX?” WJLA-TV’s Nick Minock, who broke the initial story, asked Miyares. “No,” replied Miyares.
“What we have found is the boys indeed are the victims in this situation,” Miyares said. “There is no corroborating evidence that … they had sexually harassed anyone, that they had done anything even approaching what would be considered sex discrimination.”
Miyares is urging LCPS to adopt Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R-VA) model policies, which he described as common-sense measures to protect student privacy rights and ensure student safety.
On X, Youngkin thanked Miyares for the “quick and thorough” investigation launched at his request. Youngkin also asked the state Superintendent of Public Instruction “to pursue all available avenues to hold LCPS accountable.”
“It is unacceptable that students are being targeted for exercising their sincerely held beliefs following the egregious invasion of privacy in their locker room,” Youngkin said.
LCPS has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
“To be absolutely clear: Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) would not investigate or discipline students based on their personal opinions, thoughts, or beliefs,” the school district told the Washington Examiner, “provided those expressions do not violate policies prohibiting hate speech, discriminatory language, threats, or other forms of harmful or disruptive conduct.”
Melinda Mansfield, chairwoman of the Loudoun County School Board, said in a statement previously shared with the Washington Examiner that the school system prioritizes providing “safe and equal access to education for all students.”
“Unfortunately, some individuals, media outlets, and political groups seem to be exploiting this situation without full knowledge of, or knowingly misrepresenting the facts, using it to advance their own agendas,” Mansfield said. “I strongly condemn the politicization of student safety.”