Virginia School Board Settles With Boys Punished Over Locker Room Dispute

A Virginia school board settled Friday with two male high school students who were punished for objecting to a female student using the boys’ locker room, WJLA 7News reported.

The Loudoun County school district, which has a history of controversy on gender issues, actually investigated the two students for objecting to a female student, who identified as a male, using the locker room at Stone Bridge High School.

The female student also reportedly recorded the male students in the locker room. 

As The Daily Signal previously reported, the school district found the two sophomore students responsible for Title IX sexual harassment and discrimination and suspended them for 10 days. 

After the investigation, the students’ families sued the school district to have the finding removed from their sons’ records. 

“We’re glad that our clients and Loudoun County were able to reach an agreement that ends this litigation,” Victoria Cobb, the president of Founding Freedoms Law Center, told 7News.

“We hope that, in the future, as a result of the attention brought to this situation and our efforts to help vindicate these boys, Loudoun County will have an even greater incentive to protect vulnerable students from the harms of gender ideology.”

America First Legal attorney Ian Prior, who represented the boys, told 7News, “While I can’t comment on specifics, the families are pleased that we were able to successfully mediate this case and are very happy with the result.”

The Loudoun County School Board already allows students to use bathrooms and locker rooms at schools based on how they “identify,” regardless of biological sex.

A federal judge denied the U.S. Justice Department’s motion to intervene in the case to sue the school board for violating the two boys’ religious beliefs. 

In 2021, the same school district had a major controversy over its bathroom policy.

That May, a 15-year-old male student forced a girl to commit sex acts at Stone Bridge High School, then later sexually assaulted another girl in the girls’ restroom at Broad Run High School on Oct. 6. This contributed to the departure of Loudoun County Superintendent Scott Ziegler.

The Loudoun County Juvenile Court had found the perpetrator “not innocent” of charges of forcible sodomy and forcible fellatio. The student also pleaded “no contest” to charges of abduction and sexual battery on Oct. 6.