The U.S. Justice Department filed legal action against the Loundoun County School Board on December 8. The suit alleges the county discriminated against two Christian students by suspending them after they complained about a transgender student using the boys’ locker room.
In May, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares launched an investigation into the incident, which took place at Stone Bridge High School. According to a release from Youngkin and Miyares, three male students complained about the presence of another student in the boys’ locker room. That transgender student, who identifies as male, reportedly used a cell phone to record the other students in the locker room.
LCPS suspended two of those three students involved in the locker room incident. The third was found not to have violated school policy, The Washington Post reported.
The DOJ said: “Loudoun County determined that these Christian, male students’ religious practice violated school policy, recasting constitutionally protected activity as ‘sex-based discrimination’ and ‘sexual harassment.’ As punishment, Loudoun County suspended the boys for 10 days and ordered them to submit to a ‘Comprehensive Student Support Plan’ that further violates the boys’ right to free exercise of religion at school.”
The lawsuit alleges that Loudoun County’s Policy 8040, which allows students to use facilities based on gender identity, is in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
“Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a release. “Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality.”
The legal motion is currently pending before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
