Breaking: Loudoun County Reaches Settlement with Suspended Male Students Who Objected to Female in Locker Room

février 27, 2026

The Loudoun County School Board has reached a settlement with two male students who were suspended after they expressed discomfort with the presence of a girl in their locker room.

In March, a female student at Stone Bridge High School recorded a group of boys in the men's locker room asking why a girl was allowed to use the boys' locker room. The female student identifies as a boy. Although recording in locker rooms is against district policy, the district opened a Title IX investigation into the three boys and accused them of sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination.

The rule at the center of the school controversy is Policy 8040, which allows individuals in the district to use whichever private facilities correspond to their preferred gender identity, rather than their sex.

In a video the girl submitted to LCPS, the boys said, "Is there a girl in here?" and "I'm so uncomfortable there's a girl," and "That's a female bro get out of here." LCPS called their speech "open, loud, and repeated" harassment "in an attempt to intimidate and humiliate" the female student.

Two of the male students, who are Christian, faced ten days of school suspension at the conclusion of the investigation, while the district dropped a sexual harassment charge against the third boy, who is Muslim, as "the conduct alleged would not constitute sexual harassment" even if proven, according to the district's Title IX Office.

Josh Hetzler, a lawyer representing all three boys, previously called the situation a "case of clear religious discrimination against our two Christian clients . . . The same facts were alleged against them all, yet the only difference is their faith."

The boys’ families sued the school board in an effort to stop the suspensions and to have the Title IX violations removed from their sons’ academic records.

Court records obtained by the local ABC affiliate show a settlement was reached. The federal judge overseeing the case said both sides learned lessons, according to the report.

The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights and Attorney General Jason Miyares's separate investigations both found LCPS in violation of Title IX for suspending the boys. The Department of Justice later filed suit against the school board "for its denial of equal protection based on religion," the DOJ said in a press release.

However, the federal judge sided with the school board on Friday and rejected the DOJ’s motion to intervene in the case. That decision can be appealed.