The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation in February into Alexandria City Public Schools, along with four other school districts in northern Virginia, for potential discrimination and violations of Title IX. In a complaint to the civil rights office of the U.S. Department of Education, a conservative government watchdog claimed that ACPS implemented policies that unlawfully favored transgender students.
The watchdog, America First Legal, filed the complaint on Feb. 4, alleging that policies enforced by Alexandria City and Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties’ school districts “provide greater rights to students whose ‘gender identity’ does not match their biological sex than [they do] to students whose ‘gender identity’ matches their biological sex.”
Title IX, passed in 1972, prohibits discrimination based on sex in any education program or activity that receives federal funding. Courts have typically used Title IX to rule in favor of pro-transgender policies in schools.
The complaint from America First Legal asserted that the school districts’ policies violated an executive order signed by President Donald J. Trump, which aimed to eliminate federal funding for any schools that promote “discriminatory treatment” based on “gender ideology” and “discriminatory equity ideology.”
The complaint specifically condemns the ACPS “Nondiscrimination in Education” policy — known as Policy JB — which provides students access to locker rooms and bathrooms that align with their gender identities and prohibits “discriminat[ion] against qualified persons with disabilities in the provision of health, welfare or social services.” In September 2022, ACPS chose not to comply with guidance from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration that opposed this policy — a move for which the school district faced no legal repercussions.
In a written statement, a spokesperson for ACPS said that the district is not participating in news interviews at this time “due to the pending investigation.” The spokesperson did, however, confirm the nature of the investigation, and said that ACPS policy JB “prohibits unlawful discrimination within ACPS.”
At Alexandria City High School, many students said that they support policies allowing students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identities.
“The current policy is inclusive and creates a safe space for everyone at the school,” said junior Zenith Parker, who is non-binary. “Right now, it’s how it should be.”
Senior Michaela Islas said she agreed.
“I believe it is important for students to feel both comfortable and confident while using the restroom at school,” Islas said. “Schools should be places where self-discovery is encouraged and celebrated, not punished or hindered.”
One senior said they supported a less inclusive policy.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I was in the same locker room [as a transgender person],” said the senior, who wished to remain anonymous for perceived safety concerns. “I think it should be separated, and [genders] should use their own locker rooms and bathrooms.”
When the new ACHS Minnie Howard campus opened at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, it included gender-neutral bathrooms, which all students can use regardless of their gender identities, along with gender-specific bathrooms.
“The gender neutral bathrooms are very beneficial to me and a lot of other people that may not want to disclose [their gender identity] or are maybe not out or brave enough to go into their preferred bathroom,” said Eliot Sokolove, who is gender fluid, which means they identify with different genders depending on the day or time. “They allow students to use the bathroom while not outing themselves or picking a gender.”
Parker said they believe the gender-neutral bathrooms create a more equitable school environment.
“It leaves no room for bias on how the bathrooms are treated, and I think equality in that aspect is important,” they said.
Non-transgender students, including the anonymous senior, said they appreciated these bathrooms too.
The anonymous senior said they were comfortable using gender-neutral bathrooms, which have individual floor-to-ceiling stalls, as “the doors are very private.”
Senior Tom Schilling agreed: “[They] offer much more privacy and are cleaner than the gendered bathrooms.”
In a news release from America First Legal, Ian Prior, a senior adviser to the group, said: “A male student in these school districts can wake up, claim to be ‘gender expansive or transgender,’ and then have a pass to use female locker rooms and restrooms.” In another news release, the group’s senior vice president, Reed D. Rubinstein, said America First Legal would “fight to protect our children.”
However, ACHS transgender students said the opposite. Sokolove and Corey Hess-Nelson, a male transgender student, indicated that if they had to opt for a gender-designated bathroom, they would choose that of their birth-assigned sex. “I don’t want to get into a whole debate of why me, a feminine looking person, is in the men’s bathroom at nine in the morning,” Hess-Nelson said.
Still, ACHS students said that sharing spaces with other genders was not a major concern for them.
“That’s the least of my worries,” said Parker, who often uses the female bathrooms — a place where opponents of transgender rights say women can get assaulted by transgender women (though studies have found there is no evidence to back that claim).
“If your concern is that and not the fights that occur, we need to reevaluate,” Parker said.
Schilling and Islas shared similar perspectives.
“Throughout my high school career I have been on sports teams where transgender people were in my locker room, and I felt completely comfortable,” he said.
“I believe the locker room should be a judgment-free zone,” Islas said. “Regardless of how someone looks or how they identify, everyone should feel welcome and respected. While safety for minors is always a top priority, it’s also essential to foster an environment where individuals can feel confident in who they are.”
Schilling added: “I would feel more uncomfortable knowing that transgender people were being forced into bathrooms or locker rooms of a gender with which they no longer identify.”
Hess-Nelson pushed back against claims that public spaces are more dangerous because of transgender people.
“I would encourage people who think that to go look into the amount of trans people being aggressive or violent to people in bathrooms versus the amount of cisgender people who are aggressive or violent to trans people in the bathrooms,” he said.
Hess-Nelson also said he hopes that ACPS retains its current policies, but knows it may be a difficult decision.
“I hope they don’t [change anything],” he said. “But … we are a public school and we’re already underfunded. It’s tricky.”
In a news release, Rubinstein, of America First Legal, said: “The leftists who run northern Virginia’s schools act as if they are above the law, with the power to indoctrinate children to view their parents and their biological reality as enemies to be blamed in violation of Title IX and lawful Presidential Orders.”
Sokolove said they disagree.
“Pushing the idea that a minority, such as the LGBTQ community, is facing special privileges — when in fact it is the complete opposite — is very insensitive and honestly makes it seem like they want to further silence transgender voices,” Sokolove said.
Students aren’t the only ones who denounce the investigation. In a recent tweet, City Council member Kirk McPike described it as a “horrifying and baseless attack on the safety and dignity of trans students in ACPS.”
“To those students and their families, please know that your City stands with you in the face of this spurious and harmful ‘investigation,’’ he said.
In 2022, McPike, along with multiple school board members, changed his profile picture on social media to a transgender flag with text saying “ACPS Protects Trans Kids.”
In the event that ACPS changes its policies to require students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their biological sex, junior Aio Enochs, who has been openly transgender for several years, said he “would avoid the bathrooms.”
Enochs said that before the school’s addition of gender-neutral bathrooms, he seldom used the school bathrooms, which he said poorly affected his health.
Hess-Nelson agreed that he would need to find a “work around.”
“It would make me so uncomfortable in myself,” Hess-Nelson said. “Because I know it’s wrong and I’m not being given a choice anyway.”
“To have that thrown in your face that there’s this disconnect between the physical and the mental [versions of yourself], which is already such a daily struggle, would really suck,” he added.
Still, transgender students said they are hopeful that the current policy will remain. They also said that they have appreciated previous support from ACPS and its staff.
“All of my teachers have been really thoughtful towards my identity and respectful, and I think that’s nice,” said Enochs, who said he would describe his experience at school as “actually relatively normal compared to every other student.”
Hess-Nelson said he had one teacher who “with malice” used his deadname and several “older” teachers who “didn’t understand it,” but that he feels comfortable, though not fully accepted.
“I don’t think it’s an overall acceptance,” he said. “I think the majority of students in the school have too much of their own stuff going on to be like, oh, there is a trans kid.”
Parker said they had a slightly different experience.
“Our school is very accommodating and welcoming to all people,” they said. “All of my teachers respect my pronouns, and so do my peers.”
“I definitely hope that the current policy stays,” Parker added. “We need to protect trans kids, especially with this political climate. They already feel attacked enough. They should feel safe at school.”
