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Conservative school board candidate Amy Riccardi beat incumbent Arben Istrefi in Loudoun County on Tuesday in a race defined by the district’s stance on gender identity.

Loudoun County has openly defied Trump administration’s Title IX enforcement order to protect women’s sports, bathrooms and locker rooms, choosing instead to allow biological males to access girls’ spaces despite numerous scandals. Riccardi will now join Loudoun County School Board (LCSB) member Deana Griffiths as the only two members willing to protect female students.

Riccardi beat Istrefi 51.54% to 47.62%, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Riccardi’s campaign website declares she intends to revise the school board’s policy to comply with state and federal laws, and to hold administrators accountable for student performance.

“For too long, the LCPS Administrative Office has not been held accountable for student outcomes and performance,” Riccardi’s policy priorities read. “Current School Board members have rubber-stamped administrative decisions without any oversight for a $2B budget and continue to approve salary and budget increases despite the decrease in student enrollment. As your tax bill increases, student academic performance decreases. We need to right this ship.”

The Trump administration in July concluded a months-long investigation into Loudoun, as well as four other Virginia school districts, and found they all violated federal law with their policies catering to transgender students, saying they were “trampling on the rights of students” by forcing girls to share intimate spaces with boys. Loudoun rejected the administration’s resolution agreement, choosing instead to uphold its policy that allows students to access facilities based on “gender identity” rather than biological sex.

Loudoun County has become infamous for its transgender policy. In 2021, the district drew public outrage after it was exposed for allegedly attempting to cover up a sexual assault perpetrated by a male student that claimed a transgender identity that occurred in the girls’ bathroom of the same school.

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Recently, two boys were suspended for questioning why a female student was recording them in the boys’ locker room. A federal judge has since blocked the punishment.

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