A federal judge on Friday blocked Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) from suspending a male high-school student over a “transgender” student’s allegations that he sexually harassed her by complaining about her presence in the boys’ locker room.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema granted a preliminary injunction against LCPS’ discipline of the boy, which included a 10-day suspension and a finding of sexual harassment under Title IX. As requested by the boy’s family, which is suing LCPS, these measures will be put on hold while the case proceeds through the courts.
“I am glad my son is able to keep going to school while we continue to fight for his free speech rights — which affects all students and families in this district moving forward,” the boy’s father, Seth Wolfe, said in a Friday press release from the Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC).
FFLC is representing the plaintiffs in conjunction with America First Legal (AFL) of Washington, D.C.
Video Games
The trouble with the “transgender” student began about two years ago, when the male-identifying girl started using the boys’ locker room during physical-education classes at Stone Bridge High School. LCPS policy permits students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to “their consistently asserted gender identity.”
A year ago, the girl filed a Title IX complaint against one of the boys. LCPS looked into it but took no action against the boy.
Then, in March, the girl secretly took video of three boys — two Christians and a Muslim — in the locker room in which they discussed their discomfort with having a girl in the room. “One student in the locker room told LCPS’s Title IX Office that the female student filmed his friend while he was using a urinal,” reported WJLA.
Using that video as evidence, the girl filed another Title IX complaint, this time against all three boys. She alleged that they had made disparaging remarks about her, threatened her with violence, and “misgendered” her (i.e., correctly referred to her as a girl).
LCPS promptly launched an investigation into the girl’s charges. When the boys’ parents asked the district to similarly investigate her for recording the video, LCPS declined, merely punishing her with an in-school suspension.
Ultimately, the district found the two Christian boys guilty of Title IX sexual harassment and suspended them. It dropped the charges against the Muslim boy.
Although the family of one of the Christian boys moved out of state, Wolfe’s son continues to attend LCPS and would have been forced to stay home the first 10 days of this school year had his family not sued.
Hellbound and Down 