Over the past several years, some school districts in Virginia, particularly in Northern Virginia, have embraced radical ideas about racial and gender ideology. As a mother of two young daughters who attend school in Fairfax County, I’m glad that a recent lawsuit against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) seeks to end some of the district’s egregious practices.
The nonpartisan organization America First Legal recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of one Fairfax County student traumatized by the district’s policies. Specifically, regulations that the school board adopted violate the principles of religious freedom and place students in offensive and potentially dangerous situations.
In 2020, the Fairfax County School Board adopted Regulation 2603. Among other provisions, the regulation requires that “students who identify as gender-expansive or transgender should be called by their chosen name and pronouns” and that “gender-expansive and transgender students shall be provided with the option of using a locker room or restroom consistent with the student’s gender identity.”
In practice, this regulation has meant that the lawsuit’s complainant, a practicing Roman Catholic, must call her transgender-identifying classmates by “their chosen name and pronouns,” in violation of her sincere religious beliefs regarding the immutability of sex. And because Regulation 2603 permits transgender-identifying individuals to use restrooms “consistent with the student’s gender identity,” and not just single-use facilities, the complainant — and her other female classmates — must share restroom and locker room facilities with male students. Not to mention, FCPS policy states that students could be disciplined if they don’t comply.
Reading the complaint as a parent makes me despair at the Orwellian practices inside Fairfax County schools. Students are forced to read pamphlets and watch videos regarding the district’s “gender” policies and are then quizzed to ensure they provide the “correct” responses. This compelled speech amounts to ideological indoctrination, with the threat of penalties such as suspension if a student “misgenders” a classmate — even accidentally.
Consider this paragraph from the lawsuit: “The Petitioner believes that being compelled to share common, female-designated facilities with members of the opposite sex, including restrooms, directly contradicts her faith … compromises her privacy and modesty, and makes her feel unsafe and uncomfortable.” Most people would view statements and feelings like this — particularly from a female teenager being forced to share a bathroom with a male — as sheer common sense. Yet Fairfax County views the complainant and her objections as the radical one.
This lawsuit comes mere weeks after the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a lawsuit regarding admissions policies at Fairfax County’s prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School. In that case, text messages among school board members indicated that moves to change the process for admitting students to this selective high school had “an anti-Asian feel underlying” the changes.
In both cases, radical ideology pervades the Fairfax County School Board. The woke school administrators changed admissions criteria for Thomas Jefferson High School based upon skin color — “to level the playing field for our historically underrepresented groups” — and have imposed a radical gender ideology that treats those who believe in two distinct sexes as outcasts.
Children should never have to face the kind of ostracism and hostility displayed against the plaintiff in the gender suit, simply because she had the temerity to express her religious beliefs — and no small amount of common sense. As a parent, I hope that the Fairfax County School Board will finally come to grips with reality and spend more of its time improving education for students and less time trying to indoctrinate them.
