Del. Geary Higgins (R-Loudoun) is backing Attorney General Jason Miyares’ investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), saying the district has abandoned “common sense” in its handling of a controversial locker room incident.
The case centers on two male students at Stone Bridge High School who were suspended after reporting that a female student, identifying as transgender, allegedly recorded them while they were undressing in the boys’ locker room.
Miyares announced that his office’s investigation uncovered potential violations of Title IX, unlawful retaliation, and viewpoint discrimination, referring the matter to the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice and indicating that legal action is under consideration.
The incident, which unfolded at Stone Bridge High School, has sparked national attention.
According to Miyares’ office, the students face 10-day suspensions, must complete corrective action plans, and are subject to no-contact orders with the complainant—measures that are also affecting their academic placements.
“No one should be punished for believing what is taught in biology class,” Miyares said in a press release.
Higgins, who represents Loudoun’s 30th District and is running for re-election in a closely watched race that could decide control of the House of Delegates, met with the boys’ parents after the incident and echoed the concerns they shared with him.
“This was an absolute lack of common sense,” Higgins said. “From what I understood from talking to the parents, this was not some person going through any kind of transition or wearing the other sex’s clothes. This was a girl, with long painted fingernails, dressed like a girl, who walked into the boys’ locker room, said ‘I’m trans,’ and had her phone on, taking videos of kids in the locker room.”
Higgins is a former Loudoun County schools board member, having served from 2000 to 2004.
“These young men reported it, and they’re the ones that end up in trouble,” Higgins said. “There’s no common sense. The world is upside down.”
Miyares described the suspensions as potential instances of viewpoint discrimination and unlawful retaliation.
“In the spring, Loudoun County Public Schools weaponized Title IX to punish male students for expressing discomfort at being forced to share a locker room with a female student who was filming them. Following those reports, Governor Youngkin asked my Office to investigate the facts,” he said.
He stated that an investigation revealed serious concerns, including Title IX violations, unlawful retaliation, and viewpoint discrimination.
“All tied back to Loudoun County Public Schools’ habitual misuse of authority and disregard for the law. In June, my Office referred the matter to the U.S.,” Miyares said.
Miyares emphasized that his office is actively monitoring the situation and considering legal action to ensure student rights are protected.
“Let me be clear: We aren’t going to let this go,” Miyares said. “This will not be slid under the carpet. The safety, dignity, and privacy of every student in Virginia should be non-negotiable. What Loudoun did was wrong, but it is never too late to do the right thing. I implore LCPS to do so.”
The students’ attorneys at the Founding Freedoms Law Center have claimed religious discrimination in the suspensions, noting that the two disciplined students are Christian while the only student cleared in the investigation is Muslim.
Josh Hetzler, an attorney representing the suspended boys, urged the Department of Justice to intervene.
“By making an example out of these boys and punishing them for complaining about a girl being in their locker room, LCPS shows its defiance of the US Department of Education’s Title IX compliance demands,” Hetzler said, according to Loudoun Now.
Parents of the boys say the suspensions are unjust and damaging to their children’s futures. One mother said her son was “branded guilty” for asserting his privacy rights. Another accused the district of prioritizing ideology over student safety.
Higgins agreed with that sentiment.
“The people on the school board are ideologues,” he said. “They believe what they believe, and they don’t care if parents disagree. They don’t believe that you know better than they do about raising your own children.”
Higgins said this latest controversy is part of a pattern that’s emerged since the board’s ideological shift in 2018.
“Certainly they were not right-wingers, but we had a conservative-minded school board up until 2018 it was a 5-4 majority,” he said. “But in 2018, one of the members stepped down. Rather than going to an election, which they can do under state code, they chose to appoint a replacement for that person, and that is when all the mischief started—when the board flipped.”
LCPS has faced national scrutiny over its policies as critics argue that gender identity-based bathroom protocols and sweeping DEI mandates have turned the district into a hub of ideological extremism at the expense of academics and student safety.
This includes a 2022 scandal involving a biological male who was found guilty of sexually assaulting two female students in separate incidents occurring within six months of each other.
Around the same time, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office was also investigating multiple alleged sexual assaults at a middle school in the district.
Meanwhile, a teacher training called for “dismantling white dominant culture” and the quiet rebranding of LCPS’s “Culturally Responsive Framework” into the more marketable “Culturally Responsive Instruction and Practices.”
The district has also faced scrutiny for including All Boys Aren’t Blue, a book labeled “gay incest porn” by critics, at its school libraries. Reports at the time showed 70 percent of LCPS high schools carried it.
Higgins has attended multiple school board meetings in recent years, advocating for parents and students, but says his concerns are routinely ignored.
In 2024, LCPS voted 6-3 to stop showing video of speakers during public comment periods at meetings.
In July, LCPS school board member Anne Donohue proposed limiting public comment to once a month, citing the board’s need to balance community input with other responsibilities. The proposal follows recent changes that already restrict comment topics, reduce speaking time and eliminate video during public comment, drawing criticism amid ongoing debates over the district’s gender identity policies.
“They keep making it more and more difficult to speak at the public meetings, which I find unbelievable, because if you don’t want to hear from the constituents, why are you in office?” Higgins said. “But that’s another discussion.”Higgins added that the board manipulates public comment periods by withholding speaker lists and time limits, frustrating those hoping to voice concerns.
“I was there once for four hours just to speak,” he recalled. “These are the kind of games they’re playing because they don’t want to hear from parents.”
Higgins says the General Assembly can and should act to prevent future incidents like this one. He has introduced several bills aimed at protecting parental rights and ensuring biological sex is the standard for participation in school sports and access to facilities.
He also raised concerns about how the district handles opt-out requests related to the Family Life Education curriculum, which includes lessons on sex education.
“Parents can opt out, but when they do, the kids are ostracized,” he said. “They’re made to sit alone in the hallway or the cafeteria. And get this—they still give them the curriculum, even though they opted out. That’s not ‘out.’ That’s study hall with the same material.”
He said the curriculum includes material about gender identity and transgender topics, which he sees as inappropriate.
“That’s not biological sex education. That’s indoctrination,” Higgins said. “It’s supposed to be optional. But what they’re doing to these kids is intentional—and wrong.”
As he seeks another term in the House of Delegates, Higgins says the Loudoun schools issue resonates deeply with voters—across party lines.
“When I go door to door, this is the number one issue I hear about,” he said. “I walked up to one house and the app said the woman leaned liberal. I figured I was going to get an earful. But I hand her my card, and she asks me, ‘What do you think about men in women’s sports?’ I told her I’ve got three daughters who played high school sports. I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ She looked at me and said, ‘You’ve got my vote.’”
