Four years ago, Loudoun County Public Schools upended Virginia’s statewide elections by promoting radical gender ideology to students in a move that had monumental consequences. District leadership refused to even acknowledge, let alone correct, their mistakes, and Republicans swept Virginia’s statewide races that year as a result.
Now history appears to be repeating itself.
As Virginia’s Republican candidates appear to be on the backfoot going into the summer, Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) has once again garnered the spotlight for allowing students to use the restrooms and locker rooms that match their preferred gender identity over their biological sex.
The controversy started when a local Northern Virginia reporter discovered that LCPS had opened a Title IX investigation into three boys at Stone Bridge High School – but not because of any wrongdoing on their part. The boys were complaining because a biological girl who identifies as transgender was allowed in their locker room. She had pulled her phone out and recorded them in the locker room without their consent.
Rather than simply investigate the girl for breaking district policies by recording the boys while in the locker room, LCPS launched an investigation into the boys for voicing their concerns over a girl being allowed in there with them.
LCPS has a policy titled “Rights of Transgender and Gender-Expansive Students” that the district adopted in 2021. The district’s policy allows students to use school restrooms and locker rooms according to their preferred gender identity.
The district is likely investigating the boys over the language they used according to a policy titled “Title IX, Sex-Based Discrimination, Sexual Harassment.” This policy labels one form of sexual harassment as “unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to LCPS’s education program or activity.” However, the district has not officially given a reason yet.
The issue has escalated to the point that it has now gained national attention with both Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares stepping in to control the situation. The two elected officials launched an investigation into LCPS over the issue in early May. Youngkin called the situation “beyond belief” with the district investigating the victims rather than the purported perpetrator of the controversy.
If the situation continues to grow out of control and LCPS does not back down from these ridiculous policies, the aftermath could inadvertently influence Virginia’s elections. This is exactly what happened in 2021.
A male student who identified as female sexually assaulted a girl within a high school restroom that year at LCPS. The boy was then transferred to another school in the district where he was then accused of sexually assaulting another girl.
The district exacerbated the issue when one of the victim’s fathers, Scott Smith, was dragged out of a LCPS board meeting and arrested. He was found guilty of disorderly conduct and banned from the school board building. The district would shortly thereafter adopt the current transgender policy now in place.
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) used Smith’s arrest as an example of why “education leaders are under an immediate threat” in a letter to Joe Biden. Then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland followed the letter by issuing a controversial memo directing the FBI to investigate parents.
The incident led to education in K-12 schools being the biggest issue in Virginia’s 2021 elections that saw Republicans sweep the statewide races. Youngkin, Miyares, and Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears all won their elections that year.
Youngkin’s Democratic opponent and former Governor Terry McAuliffe infamously discussed education at a pivotal moment in one of their gubernatorial debates. In a significant gaffe, McAuliffe stated, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
That one moment is often attributed as the downfall of Democrats in Virginia four years ago, but the origin of that momentous gaffe is when LCPS sacrificed the safety and wellbeing of their students in the name of radical gender ideology.
With Virginia’s November elections already on the horizon, LCPS leadership find themselves once more at the forefront of controversy by not learning from their past mistakes. Rather than ensure the safety of their students, district officials are attempting to destroy the lives of those who merely disagreed.
Americans are watching. The district’s actions may not have their intended consequences.
Casey Ryan is a writer and investigative reporter at Defending Education.
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