Families appeal after students suspended in locker room incident

By Sophia Clifton

Two 16-year-old boys at Stone Bridge High School were notified this month that they would face 10-day suspensions after a Title IX investigation concluded they were responsible for sexual harassment for complaining about a transgender classmate in the boys’ locker room.

The incident, which happened on March 31 and was partially recorded on the transgender student’s phone, led the school district to notify the students on Aug. 15 that their suspensions would begin Aug. 25. 

The boys’ attorney, Josh Hetzler of the Founding Freedoms Law Center, said that one of the students has since left the school division and that the family filed a Title IX appeal of the suspension on Aug. 19. “If LCPS again fails to do the right thing, we will have no choice but to pursue swift legal action in the coming days,” Hetzler said. 

Hetzler, who is representing the boys along with America First Legal, said the students “never used slurs or hate speech or spoke directly to the trans student.” Instead, he said, they expressed “confusion and discomfort” to each other about the presence of their classmate, whom Hetzler repeatedly referred to as a “female student” during a news conference outside the Ashburn school on Aug. 20.

Loudoun County Public Schools has declined to discuss discipline specifics because federal student-privacy law limits what school divisions can say about individual cases. A district spokesman told media that LCPS “would not suspend a student simply because they expressed some kind of discomfort,” and noted that “there is a high bar to launch a Title IX investigation and an even higher bar to determine a student is in violation of Title IX.” 

The suspensions come as LCPS faces increasing pressure from federal officials over Policy 8040, which allows students to use restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) said it would withhold federal funding from LCPS after determining the policy violates Title IX. According to budget records, about $47 million of LCPS’s $2 billion budget comes from federal funds.

The OCR is also reviewing the locker room confrontation after Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, at the request of Governor Glenn Youngkin, referred the matter for investigation. “Their rights must be protected,” Hetzler said of his clients. “We intend to see that they are.”

Seth Wolfe, whose son remains enrolled in LCPS, said that his child has been unfairly labeled. “The trans policy fails to acknowledge biological reality. My son has been branded for life for exercising free speech.”  

Wolfe also complained that his son was filmed by the trans student and that the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office determined there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the student with creating non-consensual images. “Loudoun County Public Schools chose ideology over common sense, and every parent should be alarmed,” Wolfe said. “Because if it can happen to my child, it can happen to your child.”

He also said that students and families were never prepared for this kind of situation. “They were pretty much just told, ‘This is how it is and to accept it,’ and they’re not supposed to say anything about it,” Wolfe said. “They never gave us as parents opportunities to even talk to our children about this.”

Another parent, Renae Smith, who withdrew her child from LCPS and moved out of state after the incident, said: “I specifically asked my son what they did to prepare them for this type of situation and the answer was absolutely nothing.”

“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 later told a local news station. “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.”

Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a Republican candidate for governor who attended the news conference, told the crowd: “It’s time for the insanity to stop. It’s time for everyone to recognize what is settled truth: Boys are boys and girls are girls.”

Earle-Sears shared more of her thoughts online. “For all the moms and dads out there, let me say what you’re thinking: This is not normal. It is not normal to force boys and girls to share locker rooms. It is not normal to punish kids for their fears. All parents want is a little normalcy. That’s what I’m fighting for.”

“Boys are not comfortable undressing in front of nude girls in the same locker room,” Earle-Sears told a local news station. “The boys are saying this, and the boys who should be applauded are not being applauded. Instead, they’re being punished for something that’s common sense. You know, for me, biological differences do matter. It’s not political, it’s common sense. And it’s parental rights, really. So, I’m speaking for parents and families all across Virginia. This is nonsense.”

Delegate Geary Higgins, a former School Board member now seeking reelection, also criticized Policy 8040. “As a late bloomer, I could relate to the boys saying they were embarrassed by having a trans student in the locker room,” Higgins said. He called the policy “completely nonsensical” and warned that losing federal funds over it would be “financially irresponsible.”

Legal advocates for the families say the district’s planned corrective measures for the remaining student, including a so-called “behavioral correction plan,” would force compliance with LCPS’ Policy 8040, and that such requirements raise constitutional and statutory questions they intend to litigate. Hetzler said he had been prepared to file for an injunction in federal court but instead filed the Title IX appeal that delayed the suspension. 

Hetzler also pointed to disparities in discipline with the situation, explaining that a third boy in the locker room, who is Muslim, was cleared by LCPS while the two other boys, who are Christian, were not. “While we are celebrating our success in protecting at least one of our clients from unjust charges, that disparity raises serious concerns,” he said.