Virginia school district defends policy that enabled sex offender to use girls' locker room

A Virginia faculty superintendent whose district lavatory insurance policies allowed a registered intercourse offender entry to girls’s locker rooms says the district will “proceed to foster an inclusive neighborhood,” drawing the ire of a nationwide dad and mom group. 

Dr. Francisco Duran, the superintendent of Arlington Public Colleges (APS) in Arlington, Virginia, has garnered public backlash over his response to the arrest of Richard Ok. Cox. The 58-year-old registered intercourse offender was arrested on Dec. 6 on the Barcroft Sports activities & Health Heart, a neighborhood facility with shared however separate faculty entrances and exits.

The varsity district’s coverage permitting folks to decide on which loos and locker rooms they use based mostly on gender identification enabled Cox to make use of the women’ locker room at Washington Liberty Excessive College. 

Officers discovered that Cox — who has an extended historical past of costs courting again to October 2024, together with 12 counts of loitering close to a college, daycare, park or playground as a registered intercourse offender — entered the ladies’s locker room on the location and offered false identification. 

In a Jan. 23 assertion, the Arlington GOP alleged APS ignored a number of warnings from a number of girls about Cox’s conduct. At one level, Helena Machado, director of aquatics administration for Arlington Public Colleges, allegedly instructed the ladies to make use of a household altering room as a substitute of asking Cox, a bearded male, to take action.

Machado has her “most popular pronouns” indicated on her public LinkedIn web page.

In response to Cox’s arrest, Duran defended APS insurance policies in a press release despatched to high school households and pool patrons, emphasizing the district’s dedication to inclusivity. After assuring dad and mom that “the incidents didn’t happen throughout faculty hours,” Duran mentioned Cox was banned and brought into custody.

Duran, nevertheless, gave no indication of any modifications to the ability’s locker room coverage however mentioned that they may “proceed to evaluation and alter our safety protocols for signing in and work with our authorities companions throughout the county to stop incidents like this from occurring once more.”

“Arlington Public Colleges will proceed to foster an inclusive neighborhood for all, together with those that determine as members of the [LGBT] neighborhood,” he mentioned. “Our amenities are designed to be secure, welcoming areas the place our neighborhood can come to attach, interact and give attention to their well being and well-being.”

The varsity district’s dealing with of Cox’s case has drawn criticism from teams like United States Mother and father Concerned in Schooling (USPIE), a parental rights advocacy group.

This month, USPIE awarded Duran its “Millstone of the Month” award, given to officers accused of failing to guard youngsters in colleges. 

Sheri Few, president of USPIE, known as APS’s actions “an ideal instance of how ‘woke’ authorities faculty officers worth perverse agendas and advantage signaling over defending women and girls.”

Few mentioned Duran’s actions present he and his administration prioritize “sexual confusion” over scholar security.

“It is apparent that the folks pushing transgenderism in authorities colleges could not care much less about what it is doing to girls and women in sports activities amenities,” Few mentioned. “They care solely about sowing sexual confusion. Mr. Duran richly deserves our Millstone Award.”

The “Millstone” award — which derives its identify from Matthew 18:6 — is a part of UPSIE’s mission to “shut the US Division of Schooling” and remind elected officers that “parental rights come from God, not the federal government,” in keeping with the group’s web site.

One native mom informed WJLA that ladies had seen Cox use the locker room since June 2024. Though the mom raised issues about Cox’s use of the ability with faculty district officers in September, she says he continued utilizing the ability with out concern till his arrest in late October. 

A number of residents spoke out in opposition to the coverage throughout a Jan. 30 faculty board assembly in late January, together with Mariah Burton Nelson, a registered Democrat and lesbian who believes “women and girls are being ignored in APS.”

“I am right here to ask you to limit girls’s locker rooms to girls and women,” Burton Nelson was quoted as saying. “In fact, we want safety from intercourse offenders. We additionally want safety from all males. Presently, APS coverage permits boys and males entry to girls’s locker rooms if they’re transgender.”

“Efforts to guard the security of scholars and neighborhood protecting intimate physique areas shouldn’t be sensible or adequate,” added Burton Nelson. “Women and girls usually are not secure within the presence of any bare males. That is why we’ve two separate locker rooms. Why ought to male needs to be affirmed as girls take priority over the privateness and security of precise girls?”

Regardless of supporting a coverage that allowed customers of the ability to determine which locker room to make use of, Duran mentioned throughout a Jan. 30 faculty board assembly that the district is not going to permit immigration officers to “enter colleges or take away college students with out following correct authorized protocols” because the Trump administration continues to ramp its mass deportation efforts.

“Like many in our neighborhood, I’m more and more involved about new immigration enforcement efforts going down throughout the nation,” Duran mentioned. “I need our college students, workers, and households to know that we take the security and well-being of every member of our neighborhood significantly. We’re dedicated to sustaining secure, supportive, and welcoming faculty environments for all.”