Jillian Schneider | December 12, 2024
(The Lion) — A Catholic student in Virginia has won a lawsuit against her school district for pushing radical gender ideology on students.
The anonymous high schooler filed a lawsuit in March with the help of America First Legal (AFL), alleging her religious freedom and freedom of speech were being violated.
A judge ruled against FCPS on Dec. 6, striking down its radical gender policy and agreeing it violated students’ constitutional rights.
According to the lawsuit, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) required students to refer to their classmates “who identify as gender-expansive or transgender by their chosen name and pronoun, regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student’s permanent pupil record.”
Transgender students were also “provided with the option of using a locker room or restroom consistent with the student’s gender identity.”
However, the Catholic student was unwilling to violate her conscience to comply with these rules.
“The Petitioner believes that being compelled to share common, female-designated facilities with members of the opposite sex, including restrooms, directly contradicts her faith as a Roman Catholic, compromises her privacy and modesty, and makes her feel unsafe and uncomfortable,” the lawsuit explained.
She also alleged the district, which includes affluent suburbs of Washington, D.C., created a “culture of fear” wherein students were afraid to oppose its transgender policies for fear of punishment or social ostracization.
“This is a major win for students in Fairfax County, Virginia and the rule of law,” said AFL senior advisor Ian Prior. “Policies that compel students to refer to other students by their preferred names and pronouns strike at the heart of the core fundamental rights of free speech and free exercise.
“And bathroom policies giving ‘transgender and gender expansive’ students the right to use any bathroom of their choice, while relegating other students to private restrooms if they are uncomfortable, constitute discrimination on the basis of sex.”
This article was made available to EdNews Virginia via The Lion, a publication of the Herzog Foundation.