Parents in Fairfax County have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, alleging that a student who was born male but identifies as female repeatedly entered the girls’ locker room at West Springfield High School while female students were changing clothes.
Some parents say the school system’s response has been inadequate, claiming administrators have done little more than advise female students to change quickly so the transgender student could then use the space.
“I think when you protect boys’ spaces you need to protect girls’ spaces,” said Paula Steiner, a parent of a Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) graduate. “The boys and girls should have separate spaces.”
Nancy Linton, with the conservative Family Foundation, added: “We need to use some common sense.”
Others, however, downplayed the controversy. Eric Johnson, also a parent of an FCPS graduate, argued the matter should be handled privately. “This should be handled between the local school and the families of those children,” he said. “Those children who are going through those kinds of transitions—that’s a private, personal issue.”
The debate over bathrooms and locker rooms has become a flashpoint in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears said she would support policies that separate facilities by biological sex. “How about let’s just have fairness,” she said. “Let’s have girls have their private spaces and boys have their private spaces. It has worked for how many millennia, and certainly it can work now.”
Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger’s campaign offered a response as well. “As a parent herself, Abigail believes that every Virginia parent should be able to trust that their children feel safe at school, and that every student should be able to use school spaces without fear of harassment,” her campaign said in a statement.
The incident comes as the U.S. Department of Education has warned five Northern Virginia school districts—including Fairfax County—that their policies on bathrooms and locker rooms could be in violation of Title IX, which could put federal funding at risk.
On Wednesday, an FCPS spokesperson said the district had not received a formal complaint from the Department of Education but confirmed staff are aware of the situation and “have been addressing the concerns by working with the students and their respective families.”