ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — After 7News reported that a registered sex offender was charged with exposing his genitals to women and girls in a Washington Liberty High School girl’s locker room, the Arlington Superintendent and the Arlington School Board Chair addressed the community’s concerns at a recent school board meeting.
At Thursday’s School Board meeting, Arlington Superintendent Francisco Duran told members of the community that, “We did not knowingly admit a sex offender into any of our aquatic facilities.”
Arlington Public School’s policy allows people to choose which locker rooms and bathrooms they want to use based on their gender identity, not biological sex, which is what allowed 58-year-old Richard Cox to use the girl’s locker room multiple times at Washington Liberty High School.
Washington Liberty High School is one of three Arlington high schools that have an indoor pool that is open to the public outside of school hours.
Cox has a lengthy criminal record and has a history of exposing his genitals to children in public places, according to court documents.
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Superintendent Duran said APS is “strengthening the security protocols for signing into our facilities, community use, pool access requirements during non-school hours will mirror those during our standard time during the day of a 100% ID check against the sex offender database before anyone is allowed to enter any of our facilities, including the after school non-community time. This system will be in place no later than the end of February.”
Afterward, Arlington School Board Chair Mary Kadera told the crowd about the “school board’s awareness” of the issues.
“In September, I hosted open office hours here in this building, and I heard from a member of the community who had concerns and shared their experience,” said Kadera. “Prompt action was taken based on the community member’s feedback. We installed signage that reminds all pool patrons to be considerate of others, privacy, cover intimate body areas when using shared spaces, close shower curtains, and follow all locker room etiquette guidance at this time.”
7News interviewed the Arlington mother who spoke with Kadera in early September 2024. The mother told 7News that some women have seen Cox use the girl’s locker room since June 2024.
Although the mother spoke to Kadera in early September, Cox was able to use the locker room for several weeks and was not charged until late October.
On Thursday, several Arlington residents asked the Arlington School Board to stop allowing people to use APS locker rooms and bathrooms based on gender identity.
“I’m here to ask you to restrict women’s locker rooms to women and girls,” said Mariah Burton Nelson. “Of course, we need protection from sex offenders. We also need protection from all males. Currently, APS policy allows boys and men access to women’s locker rooms if they are transgender.”
Burton Nelson said she is a Democrat and a Lesbian. She told Duran and the school board that “girls and women are being overlooked in APS.”
“Efforts to protect the safety of students and community covering intimate body areas is not practical or sufficient,” said Burton Nelson. “Girls and women are not safe in the presence of any naked men. That’s why we have two separate locker rooms. Why should male desires to be affirmed as women take precedence over the privacy and safety of actual women?”
Burton Nelson said she uses the pool and pool facilities at Washington Liberty High School.
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“I complained [about biological men using the APS women’s locker room] and was told to use the family changing rooms,” Burton Nelson to the Arlington School Board. “Why should women squeeze into small spaces and surrender, both locker rooms to male desires to be affirmed as women? And your desires to be inclusive must not take precedence over girl’s and women’s basic rights.”
Marvin Tubbs spoke at the school board meeting to ask for “accountability at the district leadership level related to the inadequate response to repeated visits to district locker rooms by a registered sex offender.”
Tubbs quoted 7News’ story where an Arlington mother said, “As we turned the corner, we saw an individual who was an individual man, as I saw it in the women’s locker room, completely naked, facing the doorway.”
“One easily recognizes that just doesn’t sound right,” said Tubbs. “Normal locker room behavior does not involve standing naked, facing a doorway. The only appropriate response to a report of an adult acting that way in the presence of children is to contact law enforcement and let them do their jobs. The appropriate response does not include allowing the conduct to continue happening for a period of months. The appropriate response does not include adding additional signage saying, ‘Please cover-up in the locker room’ and calling it a day. Any effort to involve the police would have enabled them to identify they were dealing with a registered sex offender on school property. The recent public statements by the superintendent represent parsing of language and do nothing more than appear to deflect responsibility.”
Tubbs said the district “leadership failed” to take the report seriously and called for appropriate actions to be taken.
Tubbs said front-line managers should be trained to involve law enforcement.
“Any management above that level, including the superintendent, who are aware of the issue, sanctioned the pitiful response and failed to involve law enforcement should be disciplined,” said Tubbs. “Finally, any board member aware of the issue who failed to use their authority to involve law enforcement to protect the community should step down.”
Michelle Tubbs, an APS employee who also teaches swimming lessons told the school board she was “distressed by recent media reports of registered sex offenders exposing themselves in our locker rooms.”
“More upsetting to me is the disingenuous and cowardly response last week from Superintendent Duran distancing himself by effectively throwing trans kids under the proverbial bus to avoid accountability for the district’s failure to actually protect children and community members,” said MichelleTubbs.
Michelle Tubbs said Superintendent Duran “seems to be unaware that Arlington children visit all three APS pools for recreation lessons and competition outside of school hours every day of the week.”
Michelle Tubbs said the Superintendent’s statement raises questions.
“Why was signage and guidance the first response to the commission of sex crimes at our pools?” asked Michelle Tubbs. “How many times was a registered sex offender allowed to victimize pool patrons by exposing themselves in a locker room? Why did it take so long to identify the perpetrator as a registered sex offender and involve the police? Indecent Exposure is a form of sexual assault. What is the district doing to help victims in the aftermath of these assaults? Third, these questions demand honest answers, and I am asking for a full investigation by an outside party.”
Michelle Tubbs added that APS employees, the superintendent, and the school board “failed to recognize and respond immediately and accordingly to the fact that a registered sex offender was committing sex crimes on APS property by hiding behind the district’s LGBTQ plus policies.”
“The superintendent and the board are guilty of exploiting them the same way the sex offender weaponized those same [policies],” said Michelle Tubbs.
An Arlington resident whose daughter is scheduled to attend Washington Liberty High School next year spoke to the school board and said the school board and the school district had a “lagged” response to the sex offender entering the girl’s locker room.
“There are reports going all the way back to June that people were complaining about this,” the Arlington resident told the school board. “And then when my friend in September had to deal with this problem and went to talk to the pool staff, and then was told that, no, this is okay because of the policy, then she reached out to the board, and then the person wasn’t arrested until October, and since October, there’s been no public statement by this board outside of a statement of what’s been said here tonight. That’s a huge gap of time.”
Annie Quinn told the school board that as a mother of three former APS graduates at Washington Liberty High School, she was grateful that her daughter graduated before the transgender locker room and bathroom policy was adopted by the school board.
“I spoke up during school board meetings in the spring of 2019 along with others, raising many concerns about this, and mentioned that there were no safeguards being considered to prevent a biological boy or man posing as a transgender girl or woman from using that [locker room] to invade the private changing spaces of girls and women on APS grounds for nefarious reasons, and now that has indeed happened,” said Quinn. “As noted tonight, a registered sex-offending biological male freely entered multiple APS locker room facilities and loitered naked among biological women and girls.”
Quinn told the school board that APS staff told concerned women and girls that they could use single-user bathrooms to change if they were bothered by a naked biological male in the girl’s locker room.
“Isn’t it interesting that this often only breaks one way, only biological women and girls have been forced to bear the brunt of these unfair and harmful practices?” asked Quinn. “While I appreciate the increased security measures that were outlined tonight to prevent sex offenders access to APS facilities, it still offers me no assurances that biological women and girls won’t be safe, even if APS could prevent a registered biological male sex offender from entering women and girls private spaces. Going forward, you cannot prevent first-time offenders from doing so using this same [policy]. It’s time for the school board to end the preferential treatment of biological males, including those who identify as female, over biological women and girls, by immediately resending the [the policy] and replacing it with common sense safeguards for everyone.”
On Thursday, some Arlington residents asked the Arlington School Board to stand by its policy that allows people to use APS locker rooms and bathrooms based on their gender identity and not biological sex.
“The gender identity of the person who entered the pool locker room is completely irrelevant to this conversation, and I think this bears repeating, the gender identity of the person who entered the pool locker room is completely irrelevant,” said Amy Kilala, who said she is a parent of two elementary school-aged kids. “If the same individual had exposed themselves in the other locker room, that would be an equally egregious breach of safety.”
Another Arlington resident told the school board that transgender people are being unfairly blamed for what happened.
“I’ve been to all the pools in Arlington County, and anyone, after paying the entrance fee, can enter into any locker room they desire, regardless of what happened,” the Arlington resident said. “One [sex offender] did. It’s horrible. Sadly, sexual predators exist and [it] will probably happen again. There’s not many things we can’t do to stop it.”
Longtime Arlington resident Randy Bell told the school board, “I want to thank Superintendent Duran and APS for your commitment to creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all students in our schools, your dedication to policies that embrace every student, keep our children safe, healthy and able to focus on their education rather than the hateful politics that target and harm them. In regards to the horrible incident of a registered sex offender who should never have been on school grounds yet entered a locker room, this is shocking and scary.”
Bell said he appreciated APS’ communications following the incident.
“And I trust that safety procedures and practices are being assessed at the highest level and will be strengthened,” said Bell. “An extremely vocal minority in our community have tried to conflate this incident as rationale to dismantle APS’ commitment to non-discrimination of trans and non-binary students and staff. Please look beyond this smoke screen and rhetoric.”
Arlington resident Brian Smith asked the school board to “live the core values of equity [and] inclusion” and “affirm the standing” of APS’ transgender bathroom and locker room policy.
“APS created and follows the policy and procedures that affirm the humanity of our transgender children in all APS schools,” said Smith. “For many of us, it is more than words on a page. It is a road map, a beacon and a shield. It says that every student in APS counts. It gives them hope when so many people in this world fight against them and try to destroy who they are.”
Emmy Olson, a parent of three APS students and an APS art teacher, asked the school board to keep their policies in place.
“Several students are in need of this supportive environment as they navigate high school, the current political environment, and their home life,” said Olson. “I also encourage you not to back-pedal on our supportive policies because a sick sex offender committed a crime. We have been so fortunate to have a school district that supports our LGBTQ+ students.”
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