L oudoun County School District officials instructed staff to avoid informing a transgender student's parents about their child's gender identity unless the student gives the school expressed permission, according to materials from the training.
The slides from the August training were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Ian Prior, the executive director of the political action committee called Fight for Schools, which has organized efforts to recall several members of the Loudoun County School Board.
The training was part of the implementation of district policy 8040, which was passed in August 2021, and established districtwide policies regarding the treatment of transgender students, including allowing students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity, rather than their biological sex.
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The training told teachers and staff that "privacy and confidentiality are critical for transgender students who have family that do not support or affirm their gender identity" and that informing a student's family about their gender identity could cause the student to lose "family support or housing."
"The school administrator and unified mental health team member(s) will need to consider the health and safety of the student in situations where students may not want their parents to know about their gender identity, and schools should address this on a case-by-case basis," the training said.
The training also said that any student or staff member that "intentionally" refuses to use a student's chosen pronouns or name would be in violation of district policy 8040.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Prior, who also serves as a senior adviser for America First Legal , said that the revelations from the staff training were "a big problem" as it would put "direct conflict between parents and the schools on who gets to have the pertinent information for raising their children."
The staff directives in Loudoun echoed policies on transgender students in other school districts nationwide that have increasingly become commonplace , a fact that Prior noted and said parents should generally expect to be the norm.
"I think parents everywhere need to get to the bottom of this [policy] specifically," Prior said. "Understanding what the policy is with respect to the parental right to know is crucial."
"This is extremely concerning for parents because parents need to know what's going on with their children," he said. "If their children are leading one life at school, and one life at home, not only does that impact the mental health of the child, but again, it also puts parents in the dark for what is going on with their children."
In an email to the Washington Examiner, Loudoun County Public Schools claimed that the training and district policy 8040 were necessary to comply with state law on the treatment of transgender students.
"LCPS’s number one priority is to foster the success of all students and ensure they feel safe, secure, accepted, and ready to learn at school," the district said. "The school division will continue to do its due diligence in creating that environment and remaining open and transparent with all LCPS partners, community members, and stakeholders.”
Prior took issue with the district's defense, claiming that the model policy spelled out by the Virginia Department of Education does not require that information be kept from parents.
"Nowhere in the model policy does it ever say that parents don't have a right to know, absent permission from their child," Prior said. "So once again, from Loudoun County schools, we were not, as parents, told the whole truth about what they were trying to do."
For the past year, parents in the Northern Virginia district have repeatedly blasted the school board during the public comment period at the board's meetings over the district's adoption of the transgender policy, its failure to open schools for in-person classes during the 2020-2021 school year, and the incorporation of critical race theory and gender ideology in school curricula. The district has often been viewed as the epicenter of a nationwide grassroots movement of parental activism.
A watershed moment occurred in June 2021 after it was revealed that the school board and superintendent Scott Ziegler were aware of a sexual assault in the women's bathroom of a district high school, but allowed the assailant, a male high school student, to attend a different high school, where a second assault took place.
The perpetrator committed the first assault while wearing a skirt, mere weeks before the board was set to debate its controversial policy on bathroom access for transgender students.
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In January, a judge sentenced the student to a locked residency program at a mental health facility for committing the two assaults.
The father of the first victim made national headlines in June 2021 after he was arrested at a school board meeting where the board was debating the adoption of the transgender policy after a supporter of the policy reportedly told him that she didn't believe his daughter had been raped, precipitating a scuffle.
The board's handling of the assaults resulted in several members facing recall efforts spearheaded by Prior's Fight for Schools organization.
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