Loudoun County Schools Under Investigation Over Bathroom Filming Reports

ASHBURN, VA – The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools over allegations that a student at the school filmed or photographed students in a school bathroom, the department announced on Wednesday.

The investigation by the department’s Office for Civil Rights “will determine whether Loudoun violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) by failing to prevent and properly redress allegations of sexual harassment,” an Education Department press release said.

Subscribe

The announcement refers to an ongoing investigation into whether a student at the county’s Freedom High School secretly filmed or took photos of other students in the bathroom.

Some reporting on the Freedom High School incident claims sources say the student suspected of filming is transgender.

Loudoun County Public Schools told Patch in a statement that “there are no reports that students involved in these incidents were in a restroom inconsistent with their biological sex."

However, some Loudoun parents are upset that the reported secret photographing wasn’t an isolated incident, but occurred multiple times.

The federal government has already determined that Loudoun County violated Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education activities, in another case in which two male students at Stone Bridge High School were found guilty of sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment over their treatment of a transgender student. The boys then sued the school district, claiming they’d been discriminated against because of their faith.

LCPS called that a “counterattack” launched only after the boys learned they were being investigated, Loudoun Now reported. The school system settled with parents in that case in February.

The Trump administration also found that LCPS had violated Title IX, discriminating and retaliating against the boys instead of taking their accusations of sexual harassment seriously.

The Education Department objects to Loudoun County's policy of allowing students to use facilities that correspond to their consistently expressed gender rather than their biological sex at birth. Loudoun and other regional school systems have consistently supported gender-inclusive policies, despite threats to cut federal funding.

The school system has declined to enter the federal government's resolution agreement on the issue and is at risk of losing all federal funding. Virginia’s senators have been calling for federal funding to be restored to all Northern Virginia schools.

LCPS Superintendent Aaron Spence has been called to testify before Congress in June at a committee hearing called "Breaking Trust: Attacks on Parental Rights, Inappropriate Content, and Legal Abuses in America’s Schools."

The Education Department is now accusing Loudoun of failing to protect students’ privacy. “Loudoun reportedly stood idly by while an individual repeatedly recorded students, including minors, while undressed and using the restroom,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey. “The Trump Administration will not stop fighting to restore common sense, hold administrators accountable when they sacrifice students’ well-being to a radical ideology, and ensure all students can learn in an environment free from discrimination.”