AT least two people were arrested as violence broke out during a school board meeting on new transgender rules.
Over 250 residents discussed the proposals during a Loudoun County School Board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia on Tuesday.
Parents debated a draft of a proposal on restrooms that read: “students should be allowed to use the facility that corresponds to their gender identity”, Fox News reports.
Leaders at the school board reportedly want to make schools more inclusive for transgender students.
One furious parent was booed after claiming “hate was dripping from the followers of Jesus in this room”.
Two men were arrested as they reportedly refused to leave the auditorium as violence erupted.
A Loudon County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told Fox: “The first man was issued a trespassing summons and released. The second allegedly ” was acting disorderly and displayed aggressive behavior towards another attendee.”
Parents at the meeting called for elementary school gym teacher Byron Cross to be reinstated.
He was placed on leave after telling the school board that he will not acknowledge that a “biological boy can be a girl and vice versa”.
Cross said: “I love all of my students but I will never lie to them regardless of the consequences.
“I’m a teacher but I serve God first and I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it’s against my religion.
“It’s lying to a child, it’s abuse to a child, and it’s sinning against our God.”
Cross said that he was “speaking out of love” for those who are suffering from gender dysphoria.
He said that he doesn’t intend to hurt anyone, but school policies that “defile the holy image of God” and “damage” children should be denounced.
The elementary school gym teacher referred to policy 8040 which required Loudoun County staff to use preferred gender pronouns that reflect their gender identity.
The school’s spokesperson Wayde Byard told Fox News that the decision to place Cross on paid administrative leave is not the principal’s.
Loudoun County is America’s wealthiest county as households have a median income of over $142,000, according to US Census Bureau data/
Last month, parents blasted the school board for allegedly “infecting” kids with critical race lessons.
They called for members to be dismissed after they reportedly pledged to introduce CRT into classes.
Parents of the group “Fight for Our Schools” alleged that the board is intent on “infecting our schools with critical race theory”, according to the MailOnline.
Critical race theorists maintain that legal institutions in the US “function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans,” as defined by Britannica.
Board members have been accused of “plotting war” against parents in the county who oppose it.
One furious parent said at the time: “[Critical race theory] is not an honest dialogue — it is a tactic used by Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan on slavery very many years ago to dumb down my ancestors so we could not think for ourselves.”
Teacher Monica Gill told Fox News that the notion of critical race theory had “damaged” the community.
But, interim Superintendent Scott A. Ziegler denied that the board is trying to “indoctrinate” pupils but rather provide a more inclusive community.