A Virginia school district is facing accusations that its administrators were “indifferent” to a male student, who identifies as female, harassing girls in the girls’ locker room. The accusation marks the second time in recent weeks that a school district in northern Virginia is facing complaints about putting the sensitivities of transgender students over those of the rest of the student body.

On Wednesday, a right-leaning organization focused on education, the Defense of Freedom Institute, filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against Fairfax County Public Schools. The complaint accuses West Springfield High School officials of exhibiting a “deliberately indifferent response” to a “boy’s sexual harassment of girls in their designated, sex-separate locker room.”

The DFI alleges that on September 2, a 14-year-old female student was changing in the girls’ locker room before her physical education class when she “encountered a male student (who has facial hair and was wearing pants that were so tight they clearly outlined his genitalia) standing inside the girls’ locker room and watching the girls preparing for P.E. class.”

The female student then reported the male student’s presence to a teacher who allegedly stated that there was nothing that could be done about “the boy’s intruding into the private facility reserved for females and watching girls as they changed.”

The girl’s mother called the high school administrators repeatedly but did not receive a response. DFI reports that she was not the only parent who reached out to the school about the presence of the boy in the girls’ locker room.

Two days later, a school official told the female student that, to address the situation, she could change in a unisex bathroom instead of the girls’ locker room so that she would not have to change in the presence of the boy. 

“On the morning of September 10, the boy again entered the girls’ locker room and watched the girls change for P.E. class. One female student took a photo of the boy standing in the locker room and looking at the girls around him,” the DFI’s complaint alleges.

A school resource officer was given the picture of the boy, and the official then met with school administrators to tell them that a boy was changing in the locker room. However, DFI says that the “assistant principals explained that they would not stop the boy from entering the girls’ facilities and that there would be no consequence if he continued to use them. During this time, the administrators used male pronouns to describe the boy.”

Administrators said the female student could file a Title IX complaint against the boy, but said it would “not result in any denial of the boy’s ability to enter the WSHS intimate facilities designated for girls.”

FCPS policy requires that schools let students use the bathrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identities. It adds that students who are uncomfortable changing with someone of the opposite sex shall be afforded a “reasonable, non-stigmatizing alternative,” but states that in “no case shall a gender-expansive or transgender student be required to use a locker room or restroom that conflicts with the student’s gender identity.”

The DFI notes that a 2020 amendment to Title IX rules requires institutions that receive federal funds to “address sexual harassment in their programs and activities.” Title IX describes “sexual harassment” as “unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient’s education program or activity.”

The complaint says that the male student’s conduct was “certainly ‘unwelcome’” because the female students “objected to it and immediately brought it to the attention of WSHS staff.”

“WSHS staff, no doubt feeling bound by the school district’s unlawful policy requiring them to allow boys who identify as female in girls’ private spaces, responded by reviewing the right of a biological male to access private spaces designated for girls and ultimately did nothing to remove him from the locker room as they were required to do in response to these reports of sexual harassment,” the DFI complaint states.

The DFI asks the Department of Education to “put FCPS on clear notice that failure to comply with federal law in restoring sex-separated” space will lead to an end in federal funding

FCPS did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

The complaint comes as FCPS and Arlington Public Schools are locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration over its threat to rescind federal funds if they do not rescind policies that allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identities. 

FCPS is not the only school district in Virginia to face a complaint over a transgender student using a locker room that does not match their biological sex. Loudoun County Public Schools is facing a federal lawsuit for seeking to discipline two male students who complained about the presence of a female student, who identifies as male, in the boys’ locker room.