Loudoun County students stage walkout to protest transgender bathroom policy

Dozens of students held a walkout over gender bathroom policies in Loudoun County, the progressive Virginia district that became a hotbed of protest on the issue after a pupil was sexually assaulted in the girls’ room by a boy in a skirt.

Pupils at Woodgrove High School in Purcellville walked out of their class Wednesday to express their opposition to Policy 8040, which allows transgender, nonbinary, and gender-fluid children to use bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice.

Loudoun County school board voted 7-2 to adopt in 2021 — but students say they still want a return to female- and male-only bathrooms, WJLA reported.

“In the locker rooms in the morning it’s an invasion of privacy, as I said because when men and natural-born males are in our locker rooms and they are showering in the morning, natural-born females can walk in there as they please,” a male student told the outlet.

“And that is not OK. And it goes against what we believe in,” he added.

Another male student told WJLA: “I would like to be able when I get off football practice and go put my pads away and change not feel uncomfortable with other genders in there watching me.”

He added: “I feel that girls feel the same way about the situation. How would you feel if you were a female changing with a male?”

A female student said she stopped using the bathroom because of the policy, calling it a “massive safety risk” that the district doesn’t “do anything about.”

“We express these concerns and they ignore us and write us off as right-wing crazies,” she told WJLA.

“We’re not crazy. We just don’t want to be in danger on a daily basis in this building. I think it’s people finally stepping up and just being sick of it. We’re sick of being here and just being completely ignored. I stopped using them [the bathrooms] because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me in there. And people can be like, ‘Oh, well, that’s paranoid,’” the student said.

“I’m telling you right now half the women in this building feel the same way. We don’t use the bathrooms. We hold our pee until we can’t. I mean, there are girls in PE [Physical Education class] who still get changed in the bathroom stalls in there because they’re afraid of who might waltz in,” she told the outlet.

One student said everyone should have taken part in the protest.

“But there are a lot of people who are scared to speak out against it so they stayed inside because they don’t want to see the backlash,” another student told WJLA.

Meanwhile, a small group of counter-protesters waved pride flags across the street.

“I’m here to support all of the children, no matter who they are. Yours, mine, all of them,” one of them said.

When asked if the superintended would reverse the policy, the district told the outlet: “The Loudoun County School Board is continuing to follow its established process in its review of the latest Model Policies issued by the Virginia Department of Education.

“Policy 8040 is in review along with the new Model Policies, by the Student Services Committee,” it added in the statement.

Loudoun County was the scene of some of the angriest protests on the issue, most prominently with the arrest of dad Scott Smith as he angrily accused the school board of hiding the sexual assault of his then-ninth-grade daughter by a skirt-wearing boy.

The boy was just 14 at the time and attacked another girl at a school he was transferred to — while wearing an ankle monitor from his first assault.

Despite his legitimate anguish at his daughter’s ordeal, Smith’s arrest was used as an example of unruly parents who were likened to domestic terrorists. The dad was eventually pardoned by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.