The Department of Education is investigating five Virginia school districts that have kept transgender-inclusive policies in spite of President Trump’s executive orders banning them.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights informed public schools in Fairfax County, Arlington County, Alexandria, Loudoun County and Prince William County about its investigation on Feb. 12.
The probe responds to a complaint filed by the conservative nonprofit America First Legal, which was founded by Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller.
The organization launched the complaint against the districts after Mr. Trump ordered federally funded schools to ditch transgender policies, including those allowing biological males to use female bathrooms and locker rooms. In a separate order, he banned males from participating in female sports at schools that receive federal funding.
Mr. Trump’s executive orders fulfilled one of his major campaign promises to end what he called “transgender lunacy,” which he and other critics believe has hindered safety and privacy of girls in school.
But school systems are resisting making the changes.
The America First Legal complaint contends that the five school districts, despite Mr. Trump’s executive orders, maintain policies providing “greater rights to students whose gender identity does not match their biological sex than it does to students whose gender identity matches their biological sex.”
The schools allow transgender students to use the restroom and locker rooms that match their preferred gender identity, which the conservative group argued is a violation of Title IX language protecting equal treatment of female students.
The school districts have varying policies governing transgender students, and they are largely aimed at giving students who identify as transgender broad freedom to use facilities and programs that conform with their gender identity.
In Fairfax County, transgender students can use the locker rooms and bathrooms and participate in school-sponsored sports teams that conform with their gender identity.
The Virginia High School League, however, announced this week it will comply with Mr. Trump’s executive order banning biological males from competing in female sports.
A spokesperson for Fairfax County Schools, the ninth-largest school district in the nation with 183,000 students, said the county is complying with the law and “binding court precedent,” and did not indicate plans to change the current, transgender-inclusive policies.
“All students have a right to privacy in FCPS facilities or while participating in FCPS-sponsored events. Any student who has a need or desire for increased privacy, regardless of the underlying reason, shall be provided with reasonable accommodations,” spokeswoman Julie Allen said.
In Arlington County, the school system allows “access to facilities that correspond to a student’s gender identity.”
The school system, which enrolls more than 27,000 students, has been under intense criticism recently over the policy. The public uproar came after a male, registered sex offender who claimed to be female exposed his genitals to a young girl while using the Washington Liberty High School swimming pool locker room in September. The man, 58, who has a lengthy rap sheet, also exposed himself in the women’s locker room at Arlington’s Wakefield High School in November, according to police.
The incidents occurred outside of school hours but led to demands that the school system end the trans-inclusive policy for bathrooms and locker rooms.
Schools spokesman Frank Bellavia said the district has been notified of the Education Department probe but he did not indicate whether the school plans to change its policies governing transgender individuals using female locker rooms and bathrooms.
“We firmly stand behind our non-discrimination policies and pride ourselves on providing safe, welcoming schools for all students. We follow all federal laws with respect to Title IX,” he said.
Arlington has pledged to beef up security at facilities that are used by the public outside of school hours to ensure sex offenders do not enter locker rooms. Officials said they plan to implement a policy by the end of February requiring identification for visitors that will be checked against the sex offender database.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.