Loudon County high school students walk out of class over transgender bathrooms as furious kids demand male and female-only spaces due to ‘massive safety risk’
A group of high school students walked out of their classroom in Loudoun County, Virginia, on Wednesday to protest the district’s policy on transgender bathrooms.
Loudoun County Public Schools, which saw ugly scenes at board meetings following a May 2021 sexual assault by a boy in the girls’ bathroom, adopted the trans bathroom policy in August 2021.
The policy, officially called 8040, was approved on a 7-2 vote and allows transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice.
On Wednesday, a group of students from Woodgrove High School in Purcellville marched out of class at 8:40 a.m. in protest, claiming it made them feel unsafe. It was unclear why the protest was taking place now.
“It’s a huge safety hazard, and they (LCPS) are not doing anything about it,” said one female student.
A female student (pictured) told WJLA that male students’ use of the girls’ bathroom was a “major safety risk.”
Students walked out Wednesday demanding the repeal of Policy 8040, which allows trans students to use the bathroom of their choice
About 50 to 100 students walked out of class Wednesday afternoon in protest of the policy
She said 7News they were tired of being “completely ignored” by the school district.
“We express these concerns, but they ignore us and write us off as right-wing lunatics.
‘We are not crazy. We just don’t want to be in danger every day in this building. I think it’s people who are finally taking action and are just sick of it. We are tired of being here and being completely ignored.”
The student said she felt her concerns were widely shared.
“I stopped using them (the bathrooms) because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me there,” she said.
“And people can say, ‘Oh, that’s paranoid.’
“I’m telling you right now, half the women in this building feel the same way. We do not use the bathrooms. We hold our pee until we can’t hold it anymore. I mean, there are girls in high school who still change in the bathroom stalls there because they’re afraid of who’s going to come in.”
Students unfurled posters demanding the 2021 policy be rescinded
A male student said he did not want to share the locker room with students who were born female.
“I would like when I come home from football practice and put my sanitary pads away and change, I don’t feel uncomfortable with other genders there looking at me,” he told 7News.
“I feel like girls feel the same way about the situation. How would you feel if you were a woman and switched with a man?’
Another male student agreed.
‘In the locker rooms in the morning it’s an invasion of privacy, like I said, because when men and born men are in our locker rooms and showering in the morning, natural born women can walk in there whenever they want . ‘ he said.
‘And that’s not okay. And it goes against what we believe in.”
A male student (pictured) said he wanted to be able to relax and shower comfortably in the men’s locker rooms
Another male student (pictured) said he felt allowing female students into the male locker rooms was “an invasion of privacy.”
An adult counter-protester said she was there to support “all the kids.”
The students encountered a small group of counter-protesters — including adults — who said they believed people should be able to use the bathroom of their choice.
“I’m here to support all children,” said one adult. ‘It doesn’t matter who they are. Yours, mine, all of them.”
The students said more people wanted to join their protest but were warned not to do so by their teachers.
DailyMail.com reached out to Woodgrove High and Loudoun County Public Schools for comment but did not hear back.
Loudoun County has become the epicenter of arguments over transgender bathrooms after the May 2021 attack.
The 14-year-old boy, who was wearing a skirt but believed not to be transgender, was transferred to another school and then attacked another girl.
The father of the May 2021 victim flew into a rage when the school board publicly denied the incident during a routine meeting and police were called.
Further outrage was sparked by the National School Boards Association, which wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland during the drama, arguing that some violent threats against school officials “could be the equivalent of a form of domestic terrorism.”
During Glenn Youngkin’s campaign to become governor of Virginia, he capitalized on widespread anger over the incident, and when elected, he immediately authorized an investigation into Loudoun schools — one of his first acts in office.