Arlington Public Schools is the latest public school district to face parental scorn over its policy that permits individuals to use locker rooms and bathrooms according to their gender identity, not biological sex.
At a school board meeting on Thursday evening, families protested against the district’s policy, which allowed tier-three sex offender Richard Kenneth Cox into a women’s locker room when he claimed to be a woman. APS was thrust into the national spotlight after Cox, who says correctly that APS’s policies allow him to use whichever locker room he pleases, exposed himself in women’s locker rooms at the APS-run Wakefield High School and Washington Liberty High School aquatics centers last year.
The Trump administration placed APS, along with four other Northern Virginia school districts that have similar policies, on a “high-risk” status, which attaches special conditions to federal funding. Districts are now required to pay expenses up front and submit reimbursement requests to the federal government.
Despite the administration’s threats to pull federal funding, APS has maintained its policy.
Lieutenant Governor and gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears blasted the district for risking millions of dollars in federal funding “by refusing to reverse reckless policies.”
“Right here in Arlington, a convicted child sex offender walked into a high school girls’ locker room and exposed himself to young girls,” Earle-Sears said. “That is the reality, that is the danger, and it’s about keeping schools focused on reading, writing, and math, not ideology. As Governor, I will not stand by while political correctness tramples over science, fairness, and safety.”
Jen McDougal, the mother who with her 9-year-old daughter witnessed Cox in a women’s locker room in September 2024, also spoke during public comment at the meeting.
“Please restore APS restroom and locker room access to biological males and females, not only to avoid federal intervention, but protect the dignity, safety and privacy of all people,” McDougal said.
Transgender activists rallied outside of the meeting to express support for so-called “inclusive” measures. One held a sign, directed at Earle-Sears, that read: “If trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain.”
“I’m disgusted, but not surprised,” Earle-Sears said. “This is the ‘tolerant’ left [gubernatorial challenger] Abigail Spanberger defends. I’m the sitting Lieutenant Governor, second in command in the former Capitol of the Confederate States. I’m an immigrant, a Marine, and above all, a human being. There is no place for this disgusting hatred in our Commonwealth. Anyone who doesn’t condemn this sign is complicit in approving it.”
The Arlington County Democratic Committee said in response to the now-viral sign that it “condemns racism and discrimination in all its forms, including the Republican attacks on our transgender community that were there to protest last night,” adding that it also condemns the “racist language” displayed on “one of the hundreds of signs that were present at the rally.”