The Arlington Public Schools (APS) Superintendent released a statement recently affirming the district’s commitment to “inclusive” facilities after a registered sex offender was caught repeatedly exposing himself to young girls in a locker room on school property.
Richard K. Cox, a tier three registered sex offender who was first charged with indecent liberties in Arlington in 1992, was arrested in December 2024 after several people reported a naked man watching women in the changing room of the Arlington Aquatic Center, which shares facilities with Washington Liberty-High School, according to ABC 7News. The man apparently identifies as a transgender woman.
Richard K Cox Mugshot (Photo by Arlington County Police Department)
When asked about the incident, APS Superintendent Francisco Durán released a statement doubling down on the district’s commitment to building an “inclusive community” for “those who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community,” stating, “[o]ur facilities are designed to be safe, welcoming spaces where our community can come to connect, engage and focus on their health and well-being,” according to the statement obtained by 7News.
“APS permits pool patrons to access restrooms and facilities that correspond to their gender identity,” an APS spokesman told 7News. “We take every report of concerning or unsafe behavior very seriously and do not tolerate behaviors from any individual who is threatening or making others feel unsafe. APS responded to all patron concerns related to this matter in a timely manner and took appropriate and immediate action to investigate, notify law enforcement, and prevent the individual from returning to our pool facilities.”
Durán claims APS took action “immediately” to address the concerns, but some women allege the school was aware of Cox’s presence at the school months prior.
Several women apparently alerted the director of Aquatics Management at APS, Helena Machado, of the man’s presence in September of 2024 but were told to use the individual changing facilities if they were uncomfortable, the Arlington GOP said.
“At the conclusion of the lesson, my daughter […] and I entered the locker room labeled simply ‘Women’s Lockers’ and were startled to find an adult individual whose head, face, shoulders and chest were covered by a towel but the individual’s penis, testicles and legs were fully exposed to anyone walking through the entrance,” one woman told the Arlington GOP. “I sent an email to the APS Aquatic Center director to simply clarify the changing room policy in the aquatic center as it relates to different genders. I received no response. This is unacceptable.”
The woman later spoke to a manager in person and was told that the facility is open to the public and that considerations were being made to change the signage to allow the locker room to be open to all genders, the GOP alleged.
Cox’s pending charges in Arlington County include 12 counts of loitering near a school, daycare, park or playground as a registered sex offender, three counts of entering school or daycare property as a registered sex offender, four counts of indecent exposure, two counts of indecent liberties with a child and one count of identity theft since October of 2024. Prior to the incidents in Arlington, Cox was arrested in Fairfax county in June of 2024 for indecent exposure in the women’s locker room of a Planet Fitness, though the charges were dropped after Cox argued he legally changed his sex to female, according to 7News.
Richard Kenneth Cox will appear in court in Arlington again in March.
Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney @SteveDescano dropped Cox’s charges for crimes committed in Fairfax last year.
Will Arlington’s Commonwealth’s Attorney do the same? pic.twitter.com/WLxricE1pr
— Arlington GOP (@goparlington) January 22, 2025
“Transgender people identify as belonging to a gender which may not conform to the sex they were assigned at birth,” Cox argued to the court at the time, according to 7News. “For a transgender person to be observed in a locker room nude is no proof that this also was anything more than platonic.”
APS and the APS school board did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comments.
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