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Two Virginia teen students are being suspended after they were recorded on video questioning why a female student who identifies as male was in the boys locker room.
The Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) is suspending the Stone Bridge High School students for 10 days following a Title IX investigation into the incident earlier this year, attorney Josh Heltzer, who represents the boys’ families, told 7News.
Heltzer said that LCPS found the boys to be responsible for sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination in a case that has sparked a furious response from parents the boys’ parents as well as Virginia’s attorney general, who has argued that the school agency’s process was biased and retaliatory.
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Heltzer said the families were notified by LCPS on Friday of the decision. The school agency has not publicly announced the suspension. The punishment includes a no-contact order with the complainant, including not being able to be in any of the same classes. The boys are also required to meet with school administrators to determine a corrective action plan, according to Hetzler.
Seth Wolfe, one of the boys’ parents, told 7News that he was angered by the decision and said it was concerning development.
“[We’re] saddened by the decision-making process and how that went,” Wolfe said.
Another parent, Renae Smith, was also furious and said she had already pulled her child out of the school and that the family had moved out of state.
“[We’re] absolutely floored that they came back and branded my son responsible for sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination with no solid evidence whatsoever,” Smith told 7News.
“We’re talking about scarring him for life by a biased process that’s supposed to protect fairness, but it’s shocking. It’s wrong, and it should terrify every single parent.”
Smith said she is concerned that the decision will follow her son because it will be on his permanent academic record and could impact his college applications.
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Both Wolfe and Smith said that LCPS is sending a message that any student who expresses views that disagree with Policy 8040 will be punished. Policy 8040 is a controversial guideline adopted in 2021 that permits students to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity rather than their biological sex.
“They’re going to have to follow what Loudoun County says, what they believe is right, and what goes against other people’s beliefs, or what we believe is right,” said Wolfe.
“What they’re doing to our children is just despicable,” added Smith.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares referred LCPS to federal authorities, accusing the school agency of improperly targeting three male students not for misconduct, but for expressing discomfort about sharing a locker room with a member of the opposite sex, according to Fox 5 DC. It is unclear whether the third student will be suspended.
Miyares said the footage did not show discriminatory or derogatory behavior, but rather the boys asking the student recording them to leave.
The video was recorded by the trans student.
While it is illegal to record inside locker rooms, an LCPS official confirmed to Fox 5 DC in May that none of the boys appeared in compromising positions in the video and, therefore, it was determined that no privacy laws were violated.
The LCPS told Fox News Digital that it does not publicly discuss private student matters. A spokesperson said that the school system “has a comprehensive and objective process for Title IX investigations.”
The Founding Freedoms Law Center, which has been representing the families in this case, said it will keep fighting the case until this determination is overturned.
“The Founding Freedoms Law Center is working with our clients on next steps, but we are not going to let these boys go down without a fight; we’re going to stand with them all the way till they are innocent,” Victoria Cobb, the president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, told 7News.
“Our clients have done nothing wrong and they deserve to be deemed innocent,” Cobb said.
The incident is not the first to draw national on LCPS. It made national headlines in 2021 when a father was arrested and hauled out of a board meeting for speaking out about the sexual assault of his daughter by a trans student at a local school.
LCPS also spent $11 million on adding gender-neutral single-occupancy restrooms in nine schools in the district.
“We’ve seen time and time again that Loudoun County, if given the opportunity to do the right thing, will instead do the wrong thing,” Cobb said.
“LCPS, once again, shows that it is willing to harm students in the name of woke ideology, while every student is harmed when they do things like deny federal funds to kids’ education. These boys, in particular, are being made examples of what happens when someone crosses school indoctrination.”
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