DOJ: Loudoun Students’ Suspension Over Locker Room Incident Risks District’s Federal Funding

Loudoun County Public Schools could be at risk of losing federal funding, after the U.S. Department of Justice claimed the school board did not protect the religious rights of two Christian students accused of violating Loudoun’s transgender-access policy, the agency announced in a lawsuit on Monday.

The outcome of the lawsuit could affect how all school divisions that receive federal funds must protect students’ civil rights. Loudoun schools declined to comment due to the pending litigation.

The agency alleges that LCPS applied its Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender inclusivity, to two students whom the department identified as male Christians. The male students had said they felt “uncomfortable” in March after a student assigned female at birth changed clothes in a boys’ locker room and recorded the event.

LCPS suspended the boys for 10 days and ordered them to submit to a “Comprehensive Student Support Plan,” which the agency says further violates the boys’ right to free exercise of religion at school. The penalty was suspended after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in favor of the students, blocking the school division from enforcing the suspension while the court case proceeds and preventing the harassment finding from going on the students’ records.

“Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. “Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality.”

The case was a centerpiece of Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears’ campaign this year, after Gov. Glenn Youngkin directed the Office of the Attorney General to investigate the school system’s claims against the students in May.

Va. AG launches investigation into Loudoun schools after ‘uncomfortable’ boys’ locker room incident

By June, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that his office’s investigation had been referred to the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice for further review. His office described the school system’s actions as a “retaliatory Title IX investigation” targeting the three Stone Bridge High School students.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights found that LCPS violated Title IX and retaliated against the male students by not handling sexual-harassment complaints equally.

Loudoun’s transgender-access policy, or Policy 8040, has been a source of contention since a 2021 bathroom assault case involving a male student who was found guilty of attacking two female students at different schools over six months. In the first incident, the male student was wearing a skirt when he assaulted a female student in a girls’ bathroom, although there’s no evidence that he identified as female.

Stone Bridge High School, one of the schools where the assaults took place, is where the latest locker room incident occurred.

In 2023, Loudoun County Public Schools launched a pilot program to improve restroom privacy and safety. The initiative was designed to increase accessibility and provide students with the option of using multi-fixture, gender-specific restrooms or single-occupancy restrooms across all LCPS facilities. Stone Bridge was not included in the pilot.

Loudoun County Public Schools declined to comment due to pending litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

High-risk status

The school system’s prospect of losing federal funds can also be connected to a change the Department of Education made in August to how Loudoun County and four other school divisions would receive federal funds.

On Aug. 19, the Office of Civil Rights determined that five Virginia school divisions — Alexandria City, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County Public Schools — violated Title IX by allowing students to access sex-segregated facilities based on “gender identity” rather than biological sex through their respective transgender policies.

The Youngkin administration overhauled the transgender student model policies for all schools in Virginia; however, some, like those in Northern Virginia, opted not to accept them.

Since the school divisions rejected signing an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education to resolve the violations and rescind the policies, they were placed on “high-risk” status, with the condition that all federal funding they receive would be reimbursed.

In August, the agency halted giving money for financial assistance to the districts.

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