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A pair of parents from Virginia say their sons, who were suspended and found responsible for sexual harassment after questioning why a biological female was using the boys locker room, were provided no formal way to express discomfort with their school’s transgender locker room policy.
Parents Renae Smith and Seth Wolfe say unclear policies and poor communication on the part of the Loudoun County Public Schools District led to the Title IX ruling and 10-day suspension for the boys. They say their kids were never instructed on how to communicate any potential concerns about the district’s transgender locker room or pronoun policy, nor did parents ever get notified about how to help their kids understand them.
Earlier this year, the Loudoun County school district launched a sexual harassment investigation into the two boys after they were videotaped by a biological female who identified as transgender inside the boys locker room. The video caught them outwardly complaining to each other about the fact that there was a girl using their facilities.
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Smith, Wolfe and their attorney, Josh Hetzler, said the boys tried to speak to alert administrators about their discomfort with a biological female using their locker room. However, the concerns fell on deaf ears, they recounted.
“There was an incident earlier in the year where one of the students involved with this went to another administration and was uncomfortable with it. They were pretty much just told, ‘This is how it is and to accept it,’ and they’re not supposed to say anything about it,” Wolfe relayed to Fox News Digital.
“The more we look into it, no adult ever actually told these boys how to communicate with this individual. How to use the pronouns that are appropriate. They never gave us as parents opportunities to even talk to our children about this.”
“I specifically asked my son what they did to prepare them for this type of situation and the answer was absolutely nothing,” Smith added. “If you’re going to implement this policy on paper, you better have a strategy for it in the classroom.”
In response to accusations that the boys’ complaints fell on deaf ears, the district contested that it has never suspended a student “simply because they expressed some kind of discomfort.”
“At no time would LCPS suspend a student simply because they expressed some kind of discomfort,” district spokesperson Dan Adams told Fox News Digital. “A reading of our Title IX resources should make it clear that there is a high bar to launch a Title IX investigation and an even higher bar to determine a student is in violation of Title IX.”
Fox News Digital responded with questions about what the district was accusing the boys of beyond expressing discomfort but did not hear back.
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In addition to the confusing nature of the ongoing school controversy, Smith told Fox News Digital she thought the allegations themselves were also confusing.
“I think the allegations themselves lend a lot of confusion,” Smith said. “Like, how do we get to sexual harassment based off of somebody asking why there’s a girl in their locker room?”
Smith also questioned why the other student, who filmed the boys, was not similarly disciplined.
Smith and Wolfe, along with their attorney, are appealing the Loudoun County Public Schools Title IX ruling, which found their kids responsible for sexual harassment and suspended them for 10 days. While Smith has taken her child out-of-state, Wolfe’s son has been able to attend the first several days of school because the appeal put a hold on the boys’ suspensions.
The boys’ attorney with the Founding Freedoms Law Center said they are now partnering with another law group, America First Legal,, to take legal action.
The families and their attorneys intend to exhaust all avenues in an attempt to overturn the district’s Title IX ruling finding their sons responsible for sexual harassment, which they fear will have long-term impacts on their kids, particularly when it comes to getting into college.
However, Hetzler said he is not hopeful their appeal will overturn anything.
“I don’t know who the exact person is who’s making the appeal decision. I get the sense that it’s a pretty tight-knit group overall in Loudoun County Public Schools, so I don’t expect a different result,” Hetzler said. “Ultimately, I think we’re going to have to sue them. I think we’re going to have to go into federal court. And if we go into a federal court, then the Department of Justice will have an opportunity to intervene in the case.”
Hetzler noted that they would like to avoid going to court but said “the reality is that at every point along the way, when Loudoun County has had the opportunity to do the right thing, they always seem to do the wrong thing.”
“We’d love for Loudoun to do the right thing and avoid [court], but we’ve got to stop these boys from being suspended, because once they’re suspended and they miss school, you can’t unring that bell,” Hetzler continued. “So, we’re gonna prevent that, and then we’re trying to make sure that this is scrubbed from their record because they should never have a Title IX sexual harassment on their record for simply complaining about a girl being in their locker room.”
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