Two Loudoun County Public Schools students whose district found them responsible for sexual harassment after they complained about a transgender classmate using the boys’ locker room will take the dispute to federal court after a district appeals panel denied their appeal, lawyers and parents said Wednesday.
Loudoun County’s Title IX investigation concluded earlier this year that two sophomore boys were responsible for sexual harassment after video surfaced showing the students complaining to each other about a classmate who identifies as transgender using the boys’ locker room. The investigation resulted in 10-day suspensions and a finding that the parents say will remain on the students’ records.
The families, represented by the Founding Freedoms Law Center and joined by America First Legal, said they will file a federal lawsuit in the Alexandria Division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia seeking to have the Title IX charges removed from the boys’ records, an immediate halt to the suspensions and compensation for alleged emotional, reputational and educational harm.
A press release from the Founding Freedoms Law Center characterized the district’s action as permanently branding the teenagers with a false Title IX violation. The parents’ lawyers contend the students were punished for voicing privacy concerns and that district policies and communication about transgender locker room and pronoun policies were unclear.
The parents, Seth Wolfe and Renae Smith, said their sons tried to raise concerns with school administrators before the video surfaced publicly. Smith said her family ultimately moved out of state after the incident. Josh Hetzler, an attorney for the families, said the district did not provide parents or students guidance on how to raise concerns about the district’s policies.
Loudoun County Public Schools did not respond to repeated requests for comment, according to the families’ legal team. In separate federal action, the U.S. Department of Education has scrutinized several Northern Virginia school districts, including Loudoun, over policies concerning transgender students’ use of bathrooms and locker rooms.
The case has drawn attention from conservative legal groups. America First Legal, which has backed other school-policy challenges, said it will participate in the forthcoming lawsuit. The Founding Freedoms Law Center said the suit will demand that the district drop the Title IX finding and expunge the record.
District officials previously said they launched a Title IX sexual harassment investigation after the video showed the students commenting about a classmate’s presence in the boys’ locker room. The investigation concluded the students’ conduct met the district’s definition of sexual harassment, a finding that the district says it reached under its policies.
The dispute underscores legal and practical tensions that school districts face in accommodating transgender students while addressing other students’ privacy concerns. Legal experts say courts are increasingly being asked to resolve conflicts over schools’ transgender-related policies, and federal guidance and litigation have changed over recent years.
The parents’ lawyers said the lawsuit will seek court intervention to overturn the district’s determination, stop the suspensions, and obtain damages for what they describe as severe emotional and educational harm. The timetable for filing was not immediately disclosed, and no court complaint had been filed as of Wednesday afternoon.