A battle to clear two Virginia high school students’ names is headed to federal court, as Loudoun County Public Schools seems determined to punish them for asking why a biological female was in the boys’ locker room. 

Two students at Stone Bridge High School in Virginia, whose names have not been released, have been under investigation since May. LCPS launched a Title IX investigation into three male students after a female student, who identifies as male, entered the boys’ locker room and filmed them when they asked why she was there.

The school district found that two of the three students were liable for harassment and said it would suspend them for 10 days, even though one of the boys no longer goes to the school. The district dropped charges against the third student earlier this year. 

On Tuesday, the parents of the two students found liable for harassment filed a federal lawsuit after LCPS informed them that it would move forward with the suspensions. A federal judge in Virginia granted a temporary restraining order to allow the student to remain in school, and a hearing has been scheduled for September 19. The plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction blocking the disciplinary action. 

LCPS did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication. However, it has previously defended its investigation and said it would not suspend a student “simply because they expressed some kind of discomfort.”

The Department of Education said on Tuesday that LCPS had discriminated against the two suspended male students. The department’s Office for Civil Rights said the school district “failed to respond as required by Title IX to reports of sexual harassment in the boys’ locker room at a Loudoun County school and retaliated against male students by failing to treat the parties equitably during its grievance and investigative process.”

The acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Craig Trainor, said in a statement, “Loudoun County’s adherence to radical gender ideology has repeatedly placed its students in harm’s way. First, Loudoun’s policy of allowing students to occupy intimate facilities based on ‘gender identity’ rather than biological sex violates Title IX, compromises safety, and infringes upon the dignity and privacy interests to which students are entitled.”

“Second, Loudoun County failed to treat allegations of sexual harassment equally: it promptly investigated a female student’s complaint but quickly dismissed and failed to [meaningfully] investigate two of its male students’ complaints of sexual harassment,” Mr. Trainor added.

The Department of Education gave LCPS 10 days to enter into a resolution agreement, which would require the district to rescind the suspensions and review its decision to determine whether the male students’ behavior warranted disciplinary action.

The resolution agreement also requires LCPS to apologize for its “failure to properly investigate Title IX complaints” and to provide training to staff to respond to reports of sexual harassment under Title IX. 

Virginia’s attorney general, Jason Miyares, also investigated LCPS and found that its Title IX investigation was a “misuse of authority” and lacked “any outside corroboration.”