DOJ wants to defend Christian students punished for opposing girl in boys' locker room
The U.S. Department of Justice is coming to the defense of two Virginia public high school students suspended earlier this year for speaking out against the presence of a female trans-identified student in the male locker room.
The Justice Department filed a motion to intervene on Monday in the case of S.W. et al. v. Loudoun County School Board, which centers on two Christian male students reportedly suspended after they objected to a girl who identifies as a boy in their locker room.
Loudoun County school officials "intentionally discriminated on the basis of religion in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," the administration lawyers contend.
"Because Plaintiffs and the United States both allege an Equal Protection claim regarding religious discrimination, the United States' claim shares common questions of law and fact with Plaintiffs' claims," stated the motion.
"Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, in a statement released Monday.
"Loudoun County's decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality."
Under Loudoun County's Policy 8040, enacted in 2021, "staff shall allow gender-expansive or transgender students to use their chosen name and gender pronouns that reflect their consistently asserted gender identity without any substantiating evidence, regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student's permanent educational record."
"LCPS staff shall allow gender-expansive and transgender students to participate in such activities in a manner consistent with the student's gender identity," continued the policy.
"All students are entitled to have access to restrooms and locker rooms that are sanitary, safe, and adequate, so that they can comfortably and fully engage in their school programs and activities. Students shall be allowed to use the facility that corresponds to their consistently asserted gender identity."
According to court documents, a female student recently entered the boys' locker room at Stone Bridge High School, taking advantage of the policy and recorded video of the boys there.
Two Christian male students whose faith led them to use the biologically correct pronouns for people and to use sex-segregated facilities were among those who denounced the incident.
In March, the Founding Freedoms Law Center announced that Loudoun County Public Schools was investigating three boys for allegedly engaging in "sexual harassment" over the incident, with the officials eventually imposing 10-day suspensions on two of the students.
The parents of the students filed a lawsuit against Loudoun officials, with Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granting a preliminary injunction in October that blocks the school district from enforcing the suspensions.
Loudoun County Public Schools made national headlines a few years ago when the Washington, D.C.-area school district was debating Policy 8040, permitting trans-identified students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their stated gender identity instead of their sex.
The school district drew controversy in 2021 for suspending an elementary school teacher who spoke at a school board meeting against the policy, which had not yet been approved.
The teacher sued school officials, and court injunctions were issued against the school district as the case was adjudicated. The two parties ultimately reached a settlement in which officials reversed the suspension and paid $20,000 in attorneys' fees in exchange for the teacher dropping the lawsuit.
