Parents Of ‘Wrongfully Accused’ Boys Slam Loudoun Schools

The last thing Renae Smith, a busy mother to a newborn, toddler, and teen, needed on her plate this year was a national scandal manufactured by her sophomore son’s school district to “wrongfully accuse” him of a Title IX violation. Yet, that’s exactly what happened when Loudoun County Public Schools took a group of high school boys’ concerns about a female in their locker room and turned it into a full-blown “sexual harassment” investigation at those boys’ expense, Smith told The Federalist.

Smith’s son is one of three sophomore boys who have reportedly endured weeks of interrogation and hostility from school administrators in their Virginia district after expressing discomfort over sharing a locker room with a girl.

When the female student, allegedly gender-confused, started to frequent the males’ changing quarters at the beginning of the year under LCPS’ 8040 policy, Smith said her son shared his unease with school staff.

“We are a Christian family. We have Christian beliefs and Christian morals. We believe that there are two genders, and therefore, my son has a boundary around sharing a private room or a locker room with a biological female,” Smith said.

Despite the boy’s “numerous” attempts to convey his concerns about the invasion of privacy, “little to nothing was done.”

“My son, sometime in the first quarter of the year, had expressed his discomfort to the PE teacher. Those were kind of shot down. Like ‘let’s not talk about that,’” Smith said.

It wasn’t until a covert video allegedly filmed by the girl in the locker room captured a “private conversation” between the boys about the shared space situation that Smith said LCPS decided to intervene.

Smith said LCPS first phoned her in March to have what she thought was an innocuous discussion.

“What’s interesting about the conversation is it was very nonchalant,” Smith recalled. “[They said] ‘he’s not really in a bunch of trouble. We’re just kind of talking about being respectful in the school environment.’”

Smith claims she “made sure to reiterate” her son’s record of speaking to administrators about his locker room grievance,” which she says “they took note of.” Mere days later, however, the district’s tone and approach towards Smith and her child shifted, Smith recalled.

“I received a call stating that there was going to be a formal Title IX investigation opening up on my son because of alleged comments that were made in the locker room,” Smith said. “From there, of course, we got the letter.”

Filming in locker rooms where minors frequently shower or disrobe is explicitly prohibited by the district. LCPS, however, did not respond to questions about whether they are investigating the girl for allegedly recording the boys’ conversation. Instead, the administration aimed its fire at the boys over what it deemed potential “sexual harassment.”

Smith said LCPS’s decision to investigate the high school boys has placed “an incredible amount of stress” on her and the other families.

“The emotional weight of having my son mischaracterized for something that was never meant to hurt anyone is really heavy,” Smith said in a phone interview with The Federalist. “He didn’t act out of hate. He spoke from a place of honesty and vulnerability and confusion, as most people have in situations like this. And, yet, he’s been treated as if he did something malicious.”

Seth Wolfe, the father of one of the involved teen boys, also said his son is “being unfairly targeted for simply asking a basic question that any boy would be asking in that situation.”

“It’s astonishing that Loudoun school officials are subjecting him to a formal investigation for a bogus charge that could derail his life,” Wolfe said in a statement.

Josh Hetzler, the Founding Freedoms Law Center legal counsel representing the sophomores and their families, claimed “none of the boys ever spoke to this girl once.” He also told The Federalist that he finds the school’s response to the situation “baffling,” especially considering Smith’s son’s right to protest the situation.

“We certainly believe he has First Amendment rights. He has religious liberty rights, as well, to the extent that it conflicts with his religious beliefs,” Hetzler said.

Despite the constitutional grounds for the sophomores’ objections, Hetzler said LCPS moved forward with its Title IX investigation and has already initiated interviews.

“Our position is that they should drop this immediately, because there’s no basis,” he continued.

Hetzler also warned that the district’s behavior could alter the boys’ future in damaging ways.

“We know that these Title IX investigations, even when they’re unfounded, can have a stigmatizing effect on young men — in particular, as they’re going to college, as they’re starting their careers. We don’t want that to happen,” Hetzler said.

During a May 6 LCPS board meeting, Smith openly urged the district to drop the investigation against her son.

“I’m here to speak on behalf of my son, who has been wrongfully accused of a Title IX violation. In truth, he is the victim of a Title IX violation, ignored and unsupported by the very system that is supposed to protect him,” she said.

Smith pleaded with the school board to address its “systemic failures” for one minute before she was cut off and asked to yield the microphone.

“I have not had much trust in Loudoun County Public School from the moment that we moved here,” Smith admitted to The Federalist.

Smith’s lack of trust in LCPS is understandable. Over the last five years alone, the district’s administration made headlines for allegedly covering up sexual assaults and discriminating against students based on race and political views, trying to weaponize law enforcement against concerned parents, institutionalizing racist curriculum and discrimination, and firing a teacher for refusing to use anti-science pronouns.

More recently, LCPS became one of the five Virginia school districts investigated by the Trump administration’s Department of Education for allegedly violating Title IX civil rights law with their radical transgender policies. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares also announced they would investigate LCPS over what Miyares called “the latest example of what happens when school boards disregard common sense.”

“I feel like I keep saying this over and over, but Loudoun County Public Schools has failed every single one of these kids. This is just a systemic failure across the board,” Smith said.

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.