Virginia schools get 10-day ultimatum from Education Dept on trans bathrooms

The Department of Education is giving five northern Virginia school districts ten days to fix their transgender bathroom policies or face “enforcement action,” the agency said Friday. 

Public school districts in Loudoun County, Fairfax County, Prince William County, Alexandria City and Arlington were all found to be in violation of Title IX after an investigation by the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights that began in February, according to a press release shared Friday. 

The release cited a June ruling by the Supreme Court, which the department said acknowledged that a person’s identification as “transgender” is distinct from a person’s biological sex.

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“The investigation was based on complaints alleging that the [school districts] have similar anti-discrimination policies pertaining to ‘transgender-identifying’ students, which violate the sex-based protections of Title IX,” the release said.

“The [districts] are also the subject of several lawsuits, informal complaints and reports, which allege that students in the (districts) avoid using school restrooms whenever possible because of the schools’ policies and that female students have witnessed male students inappropriately touching other students and watching female students change in a female locker room.”

Craig Trainor, the Department of Education’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, blasted the Biden administration for tolerating such behavior, adding it’s time for “northern Virginia’s experiment with radical gender ideology” to come to an end. 

The Education Department’s non-compliance finding prompted the agency to issue a proposed resolution agreement whereby each school district can take corrective action to prevent any enforcement actions by the Trump administration. 

That action would require the districts to rescind any policies or regulations allowing students to access bathrooms, locker rooms or other intimate facilities on the basis of their preferred gender identity as opposed to their biological sex.

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The districts will also be required under the agreement to issue letters to each school it oversees within its district, explaining that any future policies related to bathrooms, locker rooms or other intimate spaces must separate students on the basis of sex and not gender identity.

The districts would also be compelled under the agreement to adopt “biology-based definitions” of the words “male” and “female” to be used in all practices and policies.   

The Department of Education gave the school districts 10 days to voluntarily agree to these demands or risk “imminent” consequences, including a potential referral to the Department of Justice.

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“Today, we at Defending Education are incredibly gratified to learn that a group of Northern Virginia School Districts — many of which were ground zero for the social experimentation of transgender ‘inclusion’ in women’s sports, bathrooms and private spaces — are now facing the music for failing to adhere to the plain text and meaning of Title IX,” said Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at Defending Education.

“As a mother, as a Virginian and as former senior counsel to the assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education, I am encouraged to see that this administration is taking the enforcement of long-standing civil rights laws seriously,” Perry continued. 

“Title IX was passed to guarantee women’s educational equality in its myriad manifestations. But intransigent schools in the commonwealth seem to have forgotten that.”

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The school districts all confirmed receipt of the resolution agreements issued to them by the Department of Education and are conducting a review to determine next steps. They all also expressed a commitment to following federal and state laws while simultaneously fostering a welcoming, inclusive and supportive environment for students.