Students in Loudoun County, Virginia, walked out of class on Wednesday to protest a policy that allows biological boys to use girls' restrooms and locker rooms.
The students were protesting Policy 8040, which addresses the "Rights of Transgender and Gender-Expansive Students."
Policy 8040 states:All students are entitled to have access to restrooms and locker rooms that are sanitary, safe, and adequate. Students will be allowed to use the facility that corresponds to their consistently asserted gender identity. When a student or parent/guardian informs the school about their transgender or gender-expansive status, a school-based support team meeting should be offered for the purpose of developing a plan to accommodate the student’s needs.
The policy also allows biological boys and men to play on girls' sports teams and says that the school will keep a child's "gender identity" hidden from their parents if the student wishes.
A video of the walkout showed students singing the National Anthem as they filed out of the school, just before noon. High school students in Loudoun County gathered today to ask the Loudoun County School Board to restore girls only and boys only locker rooms and bathrooms in schools. @7NewsDC pic.twitter.com/EKUj18Hnsf
— Nick Minock (@NickMinock) November 1, 2023
Students in Loudoun also held a walkout in 2021, when a boy wearing a dress sexually assaulted a student in the girls' bathroom. The student has since sued the school for covering up her assault.
The student's father was also arrested during a school board meeting later that year. He was pardoned by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in September.
"We righted a wrong. He should’ve never been prosecuted here," Youngkin said of the pardon during an interview with Fox News. "This was a dad standing up for his daughter and just to remind everyone, his daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school and no one was doing anything about it." BREAKING: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin @GovernorVA announces a pardon for the father at center of Loudoun County assault case. #FoxNewsSunday pic.twitter.com/Ens0gq6z9z
— Fox News Sunday (@FoxNewsSunday) September 10, 2023
Youngkin continued, "His daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school, and no one was doing anything about it."
