TWIBS: Virginia Public School Actually Protects Trans Students, Infuriating Bigots and Government
Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools punished three students for sexually harassing a transgender student, and generated a whole bunch of local controversy by telling the Education Department they wouldn’t capitulate to their bigoted demands.
by Aly Gibbs
This Week in Barrel Scraping (TWIBS) is Assigned Media’s oldest column! Every Friday, Aly Gibbs digs deep from the well of transphobia and finds the most obnoxious, goofy thing transphobes have said or obsessed over during the week and tears it to shreds.
I’ve got a weird, complicated one for you this week, my twibsies.
Last Friday, Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) notified the parents of three boys that they would be punished for the sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination of a transgender peer. The punishment includes ten days of out of school suspension, a correctional plan for modifying behavior, and a no-contact order between the cisgender boys and their transgender peer. One of the three boys has relocated out of state since the incident occurred in May, but will have to serve out the suspension as well if he ever returns to the school system.
The boys, their lawyers, and their parents, however, maintain that they’re being punished for simply expressing discomfort at the presence of a trans boy in the boys’ locker room. Further complicating the narrative, the trans student used his phone to record the boys haranguing him in the locker room, in direct contravention of LCPS’ policy 8655 regarding usage of student personal devices. The policy states: “Photography, audio, or video recording is prohibited in bathrooms, locker rooms, changing areas, or clinics. Students are prohibited from using phones, tablets, and other personal technology devices in these areas unless there is a medical necessity or emergency.”
The specifics of the incident, and any lead-in to or follow-up from it, have been kept under wraps by LCPS. Speaking to Newsweek, an LCPS spokesperson said, “At no time would LCPS suspend a student simply because they express discomfort. 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.”
LCPS has clear and concise rules regarding the rights of their transgender students, outlined in policy 8040. Germane to the issue at hand is section C, titled Access to Facilities, which states: “Students should be allowed to use the facility that corresponds to their consistently asserted gender identity. While some transgender students will want that access, others may want alternatives that afford more privacy. Taking into account existing school facilities, administrators should take steps to designate gender-inclusive or single-user restrooms commensurate with the size of the school.”
These comprehensive, progressive guidelines weren’t put into place simply as an act of spontaneous benevolence, mind you. They’re designed to comply with Code of Virginia, § 22.1-23.3, “Treatment of transgender students; policies,” which states that Virginia’s Department of Education will provide school systems with “model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools.”
While LCPS is punishing students for violations of Title IX, they are themselves the subject of punitive measures from the federal Education Department, who are accusing them of violating Title IX by enforcing policy 8040. LCPS argues that they aren’t just following state laws, but are also complying with a federal ruling made by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (and upheld by the Supreme Court) in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board.
In an August 15 letter signed by Superintendent Aaron Spence and School Board Chair Melinda Mansfield, LCPS said, “This decision is rooted in our legal obligations, our values, and our belief that every student should feel safe, respected, and supported in our schools. We will continue to monitor developments closely to ensure ongoing compliance with applicable law while protecting the rights of all students. Above all, our mission at LCPS is to empower all students to make meaningful contributions to the world. That begins with creating school environments where every child feels they belong. We will not waver in that commitment.”
LCPS receives approximately $46 million in federal funding, and should the Education Department make good on their promise to withhold that money, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors have agreed to make up for that gap in funding. It’s worth pointing out that $24 million of those federal funds go to school nutrition, meaning that the Trump administration is once again attempting to starve the children of low-income families to stick it to trans kids.
Many of the people involved in this situation, from dissenting LCPS board members to the parents of the suspended kids to random right-wing pundits are talking a lot about fairness. Whether it’s fair that these boys’ lives be, supposedly, ruined over a single incident; whether it’s fair that federal funding be compromised to protect trans kids; whether it’s fair for trans kids to inhabit the same spaces as cis kids.
I believe that the safety and comfort of transgender children matters just as much as it does for cisgender children. In particular, trans kids are facing an unprecedented volume of hatred and targeted harassment from their own government and the authority figures in their lives, and it’s more than a little heartening to see civil servants like Spence talk about protecting and empowering students regardless of their gender.
I wish the colleges and hospitals actively capitulating to the government’s demands to oppress trans Americans had as much backbone as LCPS does.
Aly Gibbs (She/They), formerly Alyssa Steinsiek, is a trans writer who reports on news important to the queer community.
