Parents at a prominent Virginia school district expressed opposition to budget cuts that would slash spending on online learning and special education positions as it plans to spend millions of taxpayer dollars on all-gender, single stall bathrooms.
Parents of students at Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) spoke out at Tuesday's school board meeting against plans to spend $11 million on a pilot program that would reconstruct a handful of bathrooms at five district schools, according to LCPS’ plan. If the plan was rolled out across at every Loudoun County school at the same price, it is estimated to cost the county over $211.2 million, WJLA reported.
The new bathroom designs are viewed as a move by the district to accommodate transgender and non-binary students, but parents indicated the policy would have other implications for students.
"It is devastating to me that the majority of the school board is focused on flushing millions of dollars down the toilet in unneeded bathrooms in the name of affirmation and inclusion," one parent told school board members.
"For all the students that don’t feel comfortable sharing the restroom with the opposite sex, I see you," another county resident said. "You are loved."
"We are putting children in an uncomfortable and awkward situations," Loudoun County father Brandon Michon told the school board. "The proposal to spend $11 million on an experiment to see how we can have high schoolers, middle schoolers and elementary schoolers sharing the same bathroom … the risks do not outweigh the positive potential social aspects of it."
"What happens when we have overdoses, sexual contact, what happens when we have bullying in places that are private, what happens when Sally comes in and Johnny comes out?" he asked. "Figure this out."
Acting Superintendent Daniel Smith said he wanted "to address confusion and potential misinformation" during his meeting remarks, clarifying that the restroom "privacy" project funding is allocated through the Capital Improvement Plan, not the district's annual budget.
"I want to be clear that LCPS is not doing away with the standard configuration of multi-fixture restrooms, assigned specifically to boys or girls in any of our schools," he said of the plan. "All students can use the multi-fixture gender-specifics restrooms in all LCPS facilities. We are however increasing the number of and access to gender-neutral single use restrooms to offer more privacy."
LCPS was at the center of national media attention when the district was accused of covering up two incidents of sexual assault at of its high schools.
A biological boy wearing a skirt was accused of raping a female student in the girls' bathroom in May 2021. The same student was charged with abduction and sexual battery involving an incident at Broad Run High School in October.
The teenager was charged with sexual assault at the two high schools and was found guilty and sentenced to supervised probation in a residential treatment facility in January 2022.
PARENTS STAND UP TO ‘CULT’ LOUDOUN COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD OVER TRANSGENDER STUDENT POLICY
The first victim's father accused the school district of attempting to cover up his daughter's assault to push its controversial transgender bathroom policy that had sparked parental protests at school board meetings, but had not yet been implemented at the time of the assault.
Loudoun County School Board Member Harris Mahedavi described parents and teachers who expressed concerns about cuts to special education as "ridiculous."
"We've gotten beaten up tonight and for the last month we've been beaten up because somehow we just cannot communicate all the good things we are doing," he said. "Tonight was really sad for me to just get beaten up for thing we are doing above and beyond, we are trying to do the best."
