The Department of Education (DoEd) put five Northern Virginia school districts on “reimbursement payment status” Tuesday pending full termination of their federal funding.
The decisive edict follow the districts’ continued violations of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs and institutions.
Alexandria City, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County Public Schools allow students to use bathrooms, locker rooms and other sex-segregated facilities consistent with their subjective “gender identity,” rather than their biological sex.
Late last month, DoEd’s Office of Civil Rights found these policies violate Title IX. It ordered the districts to segregate bathrooms, locker rooms and sports by biological sex — or risk forfeiting c combined $50 million in annual federal funding.
None of the districts complied. Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), per usual, actually made a show of failing to comply.
Last week, the school board formally voted to refuse DoEd’s order. Yesterday, it suspended two high school boys for expressing discomfort with a girl in their locker room.
Of LCPS’ laundry list of wrongs, its failure to protect single-sex sports and spaces are some of the most egregious.
In 2021, shortly after LCPS passed its policy equating “gender identity” and “sex,” a “gender fluid” boy in a skirt sexually assaulted a fifteen-year-old girl in the girl’s bathroom..
Subsequently, the Daily Citizen writes:
LCPS’ Superintendent and Board dragged the [assaulted] girl’s father out of a board meeting, tried to cover up the incident and transferred the boy to another school — where he assaulted a second girl.
Then, in May, a female student filmed two boys in the boys’ locker room asking, “Why is there a girl in the boy’s locker room?”
Though the female had violated school policy by filming in the locker room, it was the boys, not her, who faced punishment.
On Monday, the district concluded the boys had committed sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination by asking why a girl had violated their privacy. They will serve a ten-day suspension and establish an additional “corrective action” plan with administrators upon their return.
Though both boys were sanctioned, only one will serve his unjust punishment. The other moved away from Virginia entirely, taking refuge in North Dakota, after district investigator Christopher Moy indicated he could choose to drop cases if the subjects left the district.
But Moy didn’t drop the investigation. Instead, he informed the family if their son ever re-enrolled in Loudoun County, he would first have to serve his suspension.
Now, the high school junior’s school record includes accusations of sex discrimination and sexual harassment — just in time to start applying for colleges.
The Daily Citizen asked Victoria Cobb, President of the Focus on the Family-allied Family Foundation, how LCPS could come to such an unjust conclusion.
“LCPS is targeting these boys, plain and simple,” she said. “Punishing boys who complain that a biological girl is in their changing area is a top-down effort to normalize unacceptable privacy invasions by the opposite gender.”
Family Foundation’ legal affiliate, Founding Freedoms Law Center, represents the boys and their families. Cobb says they plan to hold LCPS accountable for their radical policies:
To allow this punishment to stand is to allow a school system to force children to bow to a woke ideology that defies reality, science and God’s created order.
Cobb and the Family Foundation are far from the only ones to question the validity of LCPS’ “investigation.” In June, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares released a report finding:
LCPS is utilizing an unlawful, discriminatory and retaliatory Title IX investigation to silence students’ sincerely held religious objections to [LCPS policies equating sex and “gender identity.”]
Miyares referred the report to DoEd for further investigation.
Now, the writing is on the wall for LCPS and its compatriots. DoEd has “commenced administrative proceedings seeking suspension or termination of federal financial assistance to [the districts].”
In the meantime, the districts will get no federal money up front. Instead, while on “reimbursement status,” they will have to foot their own bills and submit them for federal reimbursement.
“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional security,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon explained in a press release.
“The Northern Virginia School Divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.”
The Daily Citizen heartily praises DoEd for its unflinching enforcement Title IX. As Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at DoEd, said in July:
It’s time for Northern Virginia’s experiment with radical gender ideology and unlawful discrimination to come to an end.
Additional Articles and Resources
Loudoun County Schools Defy Education Department Over Multiple Title IX Violations
DoEd Finds Northern Virginia School Districts Violated Title IX
Irate Parents Excoriate Loudoun County Schools Superintendent and Board Over Sexual Abuse Coverup
Virginia School District Ignores Parents’ Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons
‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents
Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations
Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding
Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports
New Education Secretary Linda McMahon: ‘Send Education to the States’
Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces
