A Virginia school district is under investigation after new allegations surfaced that it concealed evidence and colluded with a political action committee to retaliate against two students who questioned a transgender classmate’s access to the boys’ locker room. The legal team representing the students added new charges to their federal case, accusing the district of a conspiracy to punish them.
The legal team behind the students and their families, including America First Legal and the Founding Freedoms Law Center, submitted an expanded federal complaint on Wednesday. Their new allegations include that Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) engaged in a conspiracy to retaliate against the students. The complaint also highlighted inconsistencies in the district’s Title IX investigation, which resulted in the students being found guilty of sexual harassment and suspended for 10 days.
Lawyer Ian Prior of America First Legal stated, ‘The Title IX investigation into our clients inexplicably relied on non-credible evidence, ignored credible witness testimony, failed to interview key witnesses, deleted potentially exonerating video evidence, and failed to disclose LCPS’s own admission that the allegations against our clients did not constitute sexual harassment.’
Earlier this year, LCPS launched a Title IX sexual harassment investigation into two high-school-aged 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 biological girl who identified as a boy using their facilities.
The students and their families attempted to appeal LCPS’s Title IX sexual harassment finding, but their appeal was ultimately denied by the district, leading the families to pursue action in federal court. The latest complaints accuse the district of conspiring with a local political action committee, Loudoun for All, for the purpose of retaliating against the students and their families.
The amended complaint also points to inconsistencies in the district’s Title IX investigation, such as relying on non-credible evidence, ignoring credible evidence and witness testimony, misrepresenting evidence, failing to interview key witnesses, and failing to disclose potentially exonerating evidence.
According to the complaint, days after the federal court issued a preliminary injunction halting LCPS from suspending the boys or making Title IX findings part of their student record, the district reached out to Loudoun For All and corroborated with them in a press release and other messaging materials that included ‘a number of false and defamatory allegations’ used to generate a public narrative against the students and their families. The press releases and other materials, such as a timeline of the case’s events, were listed on the political action committee’s website, Facebook page, Reddit account, and Bluesky account, and allegedly also contained privileged, confidential information pertaining to the case cited in a subsequent local media report.
The press release from Loudoun For All accused the boys’ parents of ‘orchestrating a coordinated campaign of disinformation, knowingly misrepresenting facts to fuel political outrage,’ and argued that they were trying to ‘inflame voters ahead of an election.’
It also claimed that 24 witnesses corroborated that the boys’ called the female student, who identifies as transgender, a ‘girl,’ ‘it,’ ‘girl-boy,’ and told them ‘get out’ while inside the boy’s locker room. However, the boys’ legal counsel claimed that witnesses never corroborated these claims and the female student’s accusations of when the harassment took place appeared to be inconsistent.
The complaint also alleges that LCPS failed to disclose that a video cited as evidence in the district’s Title IX finding against the boys included the female student saying ‘I got it’ while laughing. It adds that the district allegedly deleted other video the female student took of boys using or coming out of the bathroom.
The amended complaint notes that despite inconsistencies in the female student’s story at times, they were credited with ‘superior credibility’ by Title IX investigators in the district. Furthermore, it claims that a threat assessment of the male students found no threat and the district had previously concluded that a situation similar to the one at hand resulted in the district finding no cause for sexual harassment under federal law.
LCPS declined to comment on the amended complaint, stating it is the district’s policy not to comment on pending legal matters.
Shortly after LCPS denied the boys’ Title IX appeal, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found LCPS violated Title IX by discriminating against the boys on the basis of sex. Specifically, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights determined LCPS ‘failed to meaningfully investigate complaints of sexual harassment by two male students concerning the presence of a member of the opposite sex in male-only intimate spaces yet thoroughly investigated the female student’s sexual harassment complaint about the boys.’
Both of the boys’ parents told Fox News Digital in August that their sons attempted to voice discomfort to school officials about the female classmate using their locker room, but that their complaints fell on deaf ears.
The Trump administration indicated LCPS would lose federal funding if they did not rescind its suspensions and sexual harassment findings against the two boys, review its initial findings, and investigate the Title IX complaint the boys filed against the female student for videotaping them in the locker room, which the boys’ attorneys claim was ignored by the district.
Victoria Cobb, President of the Founding Freedoms Law Center, said, ‘The amended complaint we filed today unveils Loudoun County Public Schools’ sham targeting of these boys while it ignored numerous, credible threats to their privacy and safety. As alleged, a female student repeatedly filmed male students, including while using the bathroom, yet Loudoun did nothing. Instead, Loudoun appears to have conspired with an outside political organization to continue its attacks against these boys and their parents.’
The Trump administration has also included LCPS among a list of five Northern Virginia school districts in violation of Title IX due to their locker room and bathroom policies. As a result of that determination, the districts’ federal funding will now be ‘done by reimbursement only,’ and the Trump administration commenced proceedings to potentially terminate their funding altogether, the Education Department indicated over the summer.