PRESS RELEASE: DFI Files Federal Civil Rights Complaint Against Fairfax County Public Schools for Authorizing a Boy to Repeatedly Use the Girls’ Locker Room

Complaint urges OCR to hold FCPS accountable for violating Title IX

WASHINGTON – The Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies (DFI) filed a federal civil rights complaint today with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) on behalf of the mother of a West Springfield High School freshman girl. The complaint documents multiple incidents in which a boy repeatedly entered the girls’ locker room and watched as the girls undressed and dressed for physical education class.

Despite repeated objections from students and parents, administrators at West Springfield High School refused to remove the boy from the girls’ locker room. Instead, while allowing the boy continued access to the girls’ locker room, school officials told the girls that they could use a single-occupancy unisex bathroom, instead of the locker room designated for girls, to change for P.E. class if they were uncomfortable with undressing in front of a boy.

DFI’s filing highlights that OCR has already placed FCPS on high-risk status for violating Title IX and is moving to suspend or terminate federal financial assistance to the district. The new complaint underscores that FCPS has failed to address OCR’s concerns and that the school system’s failure to comply with Title IX’s requirements continues unabated.

“FCPS always seems to make the wrong choice in these matters,” said Bob Eitel, President and Co-Founder of DFI. “Faced with a choice between violating or complying with Title IX, they choose to violate Title IX. Faced with a choice between sanctions or a resolution agreement with the Education Department, they choose sanctions. The time has come for Fairfax County Public Schools to end its massive resistance against federal civil rights enforcement.”

The complaint notes that FCPS policies unlawfully permit students to access bathrooms and locker rooms based on self-declared “gender identity” rather than biological sex. DFI argues that these policies, which FCPS has persisted in enforcing despite OCR’s recent finding that they violate Title IX, place girls at risk of harassment, violate their rights under Title IX, and illegally condition their participation in school programs on undressing in the presence of boys. The complaint also explains how the school district violated Title IX by failing to restore the girls’ equal access to the school’s programs in the face of numerous reports of harassment.

“Despite recent actions by the Education Department, Fairfax County continues to allow boys to use girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and other intimate facilities as a condition of its educational program,” said Eitel. “Given its repeated violations of Title IX and refusal to cooperate and comply, FCPS should lose its federal funding until it complies with Title IX.”

To read the full complaint, click here.