LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. (7News) — Loudoun County Public Schools has opened a Title IX investigation into three high school boys who said they were uncomfortable with a female student using the boys’ locker room.
The Loudon County School Board policy allows students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms according to their gender identification, rather than biological sex.
“We’re concerned,” a Virginia father told 7News Reporter Nick Minock about the investigation into his son.
The Virginia father told 7News that LCPS is formally investigating whether his son committed sexual harassment after he and two friends talked about being uncomfortable with the fact that there was a male-identifying classmate in the boy’s locker room.
“He was questioning why there was a female in the males’ locker room,” the father said.
“And other boys were uncomfortable [with a female in the boys’ locker room],” he added. “There were other boys asking the same question. They [LCPS] created a very uncomfortable situation. They’re young, they’re 15 years old. They’re expressing their opinions, and now they’re being targeted for expressing those opinions.”
The dad said a female student, who identifies as male, has been using the boys’ locker room for some time now. In March, after gym class, the female student used her phone to record his son and his friends in the Stone Bridge High boys’ locker room.
“I have a daughter that’s in high school as well, and if there was a male in there videotaping her in the locker room, I would have issues,” he told 7News. “If it’s my son and there’s a female in the locker room videotaping, I have issues. Even if it was somebody of the same sex, I believe that this is an invasion of their privacy.”
According to LCPS’ own policy, video and audio recordings are prohibited in school locker rooms. But it’s his son, not the student who recorded the video, who is facing serious consequences because of that recording.
“I don’t think my son should be punished for expressing his First Amendment right and being able to ask questions,” he told 7News. “They were having a conversation with their peer group. They weren’t directly asking or interacting with this other student, and just the fact that they can’t ask those simple questions, and then if they do, they’re being punished in a way where now we have some serious charges that can affect his future here going forward.”
“I’m sure, just as anybody, if you were to get a sexual harassment charge on your record, even at a young age, I’m sure that’s going to follow you around,” he added. “And if you knew the character of my son and some of these other individuals, you would know that’s completely opposite from where he is and how he’s been raised and how he’s taught. He’s very caring and loving. But at the same time, he does stand up for his beliefs and he can question things and have those rights that we are afforded in America. My son in middle school was nominated for one of, like, the nicest kids in the whole middle school.”
He wants LCPS to dismiss the Title IX complaint against the boys. He also believes the Loudoun County School Board should reverse its policy that allows students to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their chosen gender identity.
“I think they should repeal the current policy, and I think they should come up with a policy that can keep all individuals safe, transgender, non-binary, and everything in between,” he said. “I think the policy itself creates an unsafe environment for all kids at all levels, from the elementary schools and middle school to the high school. I think it creates an unsafe and unclear message for them. I think by not having clear policies in line with the presidential mandates, that it has actually created these hostile environments, and environments that these young boys and young girls do not feel comfortable in. I do want our son and his future and these other students to be protected, but I think that the bigger issue is that the policy itself is not keeping our students safe.”
It’s a controversial policy that put LCPS in the national spotlight after a boy sexually assaulted a girl in a Stone Bridge High School girls’ bathroom in 2021.
In the years that followed, a mother and her daughter told 7News that a boy was changing in the girls’ locker room at Loudoun Valley High School as of result of the school board’s policy. And a father told 7News a girl was changing in the boy’s locker room at Woodgrove High School, which prompted student protests.
After a group of parents who were largely Christian, Muslim, and Hindu expressed their concerns about Policy 8040 at a school board meeting and called for girl-only and boy-only bathrooms and locker rooms in February 2024, the newly elected Loudoun County School Board shut off cameras during public comment so the public could not see parents speak to the school board about their concerns.
Right now, LCPS and four other northern Virginia school district’s transgender locker room and bathroom policies are being investigated by President Donald Trump’s U.S. Department of Education to see if the schools’ policies violate Title IX.
The Loudoun County father 7News spoke to points out that LCPS’ policy is not in line with President Trump’s Executive Order to protect single-sex spaces and recognize two sexes. He said this is another reason the investigation into his son should be dropped.
“They’ve gotten a clear message from the President that this shouldn’t be an issue. Now that they’re dealing with it, and the fact that he can’t express himself, it’s very confusing,” he said.
Last week, 7News sent emails to Loudoun County Superintendent Aaron Spence’s spokesperson and Loudoun County School Board Members Melinda Mansfield, Anne Donohue, April Chandler, Sumera Rashid, Arben Istrefi, Deana Griffiths, Lauren Shernoff, Kari LaBell, and Linda Deans to request interviews on this topic and answer the following questions:
- Do you think LCPS students should be disciplined by LCPS for expressing their concerns that students of the opposite gender are using the locker room with them?
- For instance, if a female student uses LCPS boys’ locker rooms because the female student identifies as a boy, do you believe the boys are in the wrong for expressing their concerns and discomfort and do you think the boys should be disciplined for expressing their concerns?
- In addition, if a male student uses LCPS girls’ locker rooms because the male student identifies as a girl, do you believe the girls are in the wrong for expressing their concerns and discomfort and do you think the girls should be disciplined for expressing their concerns?
- Do you think it is acceptable for LCPS students to record other students in school locker rooms?
7News has followed up several times with the superintendent and his spokesperson, Natalie Allen, and the school board members. None have responded to 7News’ questions and interview requests.
The Virginia father 7News spoke to said his son and other students in LCPS are uncomfortable with Policy 8040, which allows students to use bathrooms and lockers of their choice. And he would like answers from the school board on why LCPS’ policies are not in line with President Trump’s executive order.
“They’re at a young age,” he said. “They are not comfortable with their own bodies yet, and then to be subjugated, to have someone else, a little bit opposite gender, to be around that it really does start to create issues and questioning of who’s protecting us and who’s keeping us safe, and who’s making these decisions that are affecting not only our future, but actually our experience in high school.”
NEW REACTION
After the publication of this story, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares was quick to respond.
“This is exactly why these schools should be adopting Governor Youngkin’s model policies,” said Miyares. “Because what you reported, I find to be outrageous that these young boys presumably felt uncomfortable. They’re 15 years old. We all were teenagers at one point. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it would be to have a member of the opposite sex in the locker room where people were obviously changing clothes, and then later, on top of that, recording it. Even though they’re the victims in this, somehow, they’re being treated as perpetrators. I think this is an example, yet again, a school district that tries to be so open-minded their brain falls out. The fact that it’s 2025 and there are people that are advocating and pushing for members of the opposite sex to be in a teenager’s locker room, and they think somehow that’s being open-minded and tolerant? The reality is putting whether it’s young boys or young girls in an untenable position and you layer on top of that, when you raise objections, somehow you’re the bad guy for raising objections to this. If this was 20 years ago, nobody in the right mind would think this was a smart policy. Yet here we are today.”
Miyares’ office investigated LCPS’s handling of a student sexual assault at Stone Bridge High School in 2021.
7News asked Miyares if there is something his office and Governor Glenn Youngkin can do to address the Loudoun County School Board’s locker room policy.
“We do have the Virginia Human Rights Act, which is overseen by our office, but the Virginia Human Rights Act right now has a carve out for educational institutions like Loudoun County, and when we’ve asked the General Assembly to end that carve out, they haven’t passed that law,” said Miyares. “And so that’s one thing that we have seen. We know that the federal government, the federal government is looking at this, and I think that’s going to be critically important. We are happy to talk to any student that has been the victim of discrimination. I mean, Title IX is supposed to be our principal federal law protecting our students from sexual harassment and sex discrimination in education. Right now, it’s now being used as a weapon to go after these young boys that felt vulnerable, [who] brought up this issue, and now they’re being punished for it.”
Miyares said the new Loudoun County School Board should take a vote on Policy 8040, so voters know where they stand on allowing members of the opposite sex to use bathrooms and locker rooms in schools.
“You don’t need a focus group to know what common sense is,” said Miyares. “Common sense is not allowing members of the opposite sex into a minor teenager’s locker room. Common sense says they shouldn’t be allowed to bring in a recording device to record their fellow classmates, and so this is a great example, yet again, of them putting politics over people’s safety. This is a policy that can easily be re-imagined and be recertified by simply adopting Governor Youngkin’s model policy that will protect our students moving forward, but it’s clear they want to play politics with our kids’ safety rather than following common sense.”
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