education

Poetic Justice: Virginia school district loses federal funding day after bogus suspension.

The Department of Education (DoEd) put five Northern Virginia school districts on “reimbursement payment status” Tuesday pending full termination of their federal funding.

The decisive edict follow the districts’ continued violations of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs and institutions.

Alexandria City, Arlington, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County Public Schools allow students to use bathrooms, locker rooms and other sex-segregated facilities consistent with their subjective “gender identity,” rather than their biological sex.

Late last month, DoEd’s Office of Civil Rights found these policies violate Title IX. It ordered the districts to segregate bathrooms, locker rooms and sports by biological sex — or risk forfeiting a combined $50 million in annual federal funding.

None of the districts complied. Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), per usual, actually made a show of failing to comply.

Last week, the school board formally voted to refuse DoEd’s order. Yesterday, it suspended two high school boys for expressing discomfort with a girl in their locker room.

Of LCPS’ laundry list of wrongs, its failure to protect single-sex sports and spaces are some of the most egregious.

In 2021, shortly after LCPS passed its policy equating “gender identity” and “sex,” a “gender fluid” boy in a skirt sexually assaulted a fifteen-year-old girl in the girl’s bathroom..

Subsequently, the Daily Citizen writes:

LCPS’ Superintendent and Board dragged the [assaulted] girl’s father out of a board meeting, tried to cover up the incident and transferred the boy to another school — where he assaulted a second girl.

Then, in May, a female student filmed two boys in the boys’ locker room asking, “Why is there a girl in the boy’s locker room?”

Though the female had violated school policy by filming in the locker room, it was the boys, not her, who faced punishment.

On Monday, the district concluded the boys had committed sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination by asking why a girl had violated their privacy. They will serve a ten-day suspension and establish an additional “corrective action” plan with administrators upon their return.

Though both boys were sanctioned, only one will serve his unjust punishment. The other moved away from Virginia entirely, taking refuge in North Dakota, after district investigator Christopher Moy indicated he could choose to drop cases if the subjects left the district.  

But Moy didn’t drop the investigation. Instead, he informed the family if their son ever re-enrolled in Loudoun County, he would first have to serve his suspension.

Now, the high school junior’s school record includes accusations of sex discrimination and sexual harassment — just in time to start applying for colleges.

The Daily Citizen asked Victoria Cobb, President of the Focus on the Family-allied Family Foundation, how LCPS could come to such an unjust conclusion.  

“LCPS is targeting these boys, plain and simple,” she said. “Punishing boys who complain that a biological girl is in their changing area is a top-down effort to normalize unacceptable privacy invasions by the opposite gender.”

Family Foundation’ legal affiliate, Founding Freedoms Law Center, represents the boys and their families. Cobb says they plan to hold LCPS accountable for their radical policies:

To allow this punishment to stand is to allow a school system to force children to bow to a woke ideology that defies reality, science and God’s created order.

Cobb and the Family Foundation are far from the only ones to question the validity of LCPS’ “investigation.” In June, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares released a report finding:

LCPS is utilizing an unlawful, discriminatory and retaliatory Title IX investigation to silence students’ sincerely held religious objections to [LCPS policies equating sex and “gender identity.”]

Miyares referred the report to DoEd for further investigation.

Now, the writing is on the wall for LCPS and its compatriots. DoEd has “commenced administrative proceedings seeking suspension or termination of federal financial assistance to [the districts].”

In the meantime, the districts will get no federal money up front. Instead, while on “reimbursement status,” they will have to foot their own bills and submit them for federal reimbursement.

“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional security,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon explained in a press release.

“The Northern Virginia School Divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.”

The Daily Citizen heartily praises DoEd for its unflinching enforcement Title IX. As Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at DoEd, said in July:

It’s time for Northern Virginia’s experiment with radical gender ideology and unlawful discrimination to come to an end.

Additional Articles and Resources

Loudoun County Schools Defy Education Department Over Multiple Title IX Violations

DoEd Finds Northern Virginia School Districts Violated Title IX

Irate Parents Excoriate Loudoun County Schools Superintendent and Board Over Sexual Abuse Coverup

Virginia School District Ignores Parents’ Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons

‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports

New Education Secretary Linda McMahon: ‘Send Education to the States’

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

Massachusetts Schools Give Students Intrusive Survey About Sex, Alcohol and Drugs

Warning, this article includes sensitive sexual content.

Massachusetts parents were upset to learn their high school and middle school children – some as young as 11 years old – were given government surveys asking intrusive and explicit questions about their sexual experiences; alcohol, drug and tobacco usage; and “gender identity.”

Many Burlington Public School (BPS) students were given the surveys, even though their parents had opted them out of taking the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a national survey created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

The survey was first conducted in 1991, primarily to track behaviors related to HIV infection. But it’s broadened in scope since then, and many parents find the questions inappropriate for minors.

In early April, irate BPS parents alerted Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI), a Focus on the Family ally, about the nature of the surveys, as well as the fact that some students were required to take it against their parents’ wishes.

MFI posted a video of concerned parents, grandparents and other citizens complaining about the YRBS at a school board meeting. One grandmother, whose granddaughter took the survey against her parents’ wishes, said,

“Every child has the right to go to school being loved, cared for and treated with respect. We have the right to send our children to school and not have this stuff shoved down their throats.”

“You can’t undo the damage. You can’t undo the damage that was done.”

She went on to explain that even if a child didn’t take the survey, they would be exposed to the topics anyway because children throughout the school were discussing the questions, with some students looking up survey topics on the internet.

Another video shows an angry mother, whose special needs son came home and told her he took a “weird test” at school with questions he didn’t know how to answer.

After looking at survey questions online, she said, “This was a calculated and deliberate attack on our children’s innocence and denial of our parental right to protect our minor children. With this survey, you have exposed our innocent children to mental pornography.”

She called the descriptions of sexual acts “sexual grooming and downright sexual assault.”

Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center, an initiative of MFI, sent a letter to the BPS school board and superintendent, explaining parents’ concerns,

“This extensive, 45-minute survey asked students about numerous sensitive topics such as their drug and alcohol use, mental health issues, sexual encounters (including whether they had been victims of sexual assault), sexual orientation and gender identity, and more.”

“Although many parents exercised their legal right to opt their children out of the inappropriate survey, the school still told students that they had to take the survey – even if they didn’t want to. This egregious violation of parental and student rights transgressed federal law.”

The legal center listed some of the sexually oriented questions:

  • “Which of the following best describes your sexual orientation?
    • Straight or heterosexual
    • Lesbian or gay
    • Asexual
    • Bisexual
    • Pansexual
    • Queer…”
  • “Which of the following terms best describes your current gender identity?
    • Cisgender girl or woman
    • Cisgender boy or man
    • Transgender girl or woman
    • Transgender boy or man
    • Nonbinary or genderqueer…”
  • “The next question asks about sexual intercourse. Sexual intercourse includes vaginal sex which is when a penis goes inside of a vagina, oral sex which is contact between the mouth and genitals, anal sex which is when the penis goes inside an anus (butt), and use of toys or props (vaginal or anal).
    • Have you ever had sexual intercourse?”
  • “Has anyone ever done sexual things to you or forced you to do sexual things that you did not want to?”

While some of the questions in the YRBS are more innocuous, such as asking students if they wear a seat belt in the car or use helmets when skateboarding, many ask for sensitive information. For example, students were asked if they’ve been bullied or discriminated against; self-harmed; experienced depression or suicidal thoughts; attempted suicide; or been involved in violence and fistfights.

Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center explained that federal law, specifically the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, requires schools that receive federal funds to notify parents about surveys that cover sensitive topics and to allow parents to opt their child out of taking such surveys.

The letter stated the school district has “violated the rights of parents and students” a number of times:

BPS has for years pushed controversial and divisive sexual, racial, and political ideologies upon impressionable students without providing parents with an opportunity to opt their children out.

BPS has gone all-out to celebrate “LGBTQ+ Pride,” decking the halls at school with flags and posters, while denying pro-life students the opportunity to fly the pro-life flag on the school flagpole for even a day in January 2024. It has shown students videos suggesting that all white people view black men as inherently dangerous.

“Gender nonconforming” BPS teachers have pressured students to use pronouns for the teacher that do not match their biological sex. BPS has attempted to hide the existence of an LGBTQ club from parents in order to keep them in the dark about their children’s sexuality.

Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center demanded those responsible be held accountable, “up to and including terminating them from their employment” for violating federal law, and that the district develop “policies to prevent inappropriate and intrusive surveys from being administered to students which cover sensitive topics.”

Two school board meetings and a month later, Massachusetts Family Institute stated, “Parents have remained unsatisfied with the district’s response to the growing controversy and are doubling down on demanding accountability.”

The family advocacy group also urged parents across the state to investigate what’s happening in their local schools:

“MFI also encourages parents across MA to reach out to their districts regarding the YRBS survey and other similar surveys. What happened in Burlington can happen in any city or town that institutes graphic and inappropriate surveys.”

“Find out if your district intends to implement a survey with sensitive topics. If so, opt your child out, and then advocate for a policy that puts a stop to the surveys altogether. “

Since this is a national survey, we encourage all parents to find out if it’s given in their local schools – and take appropriate action to protect their children.

Related Articles and Resources

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Equipping Parents for Back-to-School – The free download helps you be aware of what’s going on in your child’s classroom and offers guidance for how to advocate for your child.

Massachusetts Family Institute

Massachusetts Family Institute: On the Frontlines for Religious Freedom and Free Speech

Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center

MFI: Burlington Parents Demand Answers on Explicit Student Survey

MFI: Burlington School Committee Faces Heated Crowd as Survey Fallout Continues

MFI: The Fight Isn’t Over: Burlington Survey Controversy Grows

President Trump: ‘There are Only Two Genders: Male and Female’

Supreme Court Sympathetic to Opt-Outs for LGBT Curriculum

Arkansas Now Requires Schools to Teach Human Development in the Womb

Last week, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill requiring that public school students learn about human development in the womb.

This new law is part of a broader trend among more conservative states to include detailed fetal development into education standards and school curricula and it’s a positive move that’s reflective of the ongoing culture war over abortion.

SB 450 requires Arkansas Department of Education to change its academic standards to include discussions on human fetal growth and development.

The bill aims to educate students on the biological truths of human development from conception to birth.

The measure was passed with overwhelming support in the State House (vote of 81-13) and State Senate (vote of 26-6).

Key provisions require that the content include:

  • “A high-definition ultrasound that shows the brain, heart, sex organs, and other vital organs in early fetal development”
  • “The process of fertilization and every stage of human development inside the uterus, including a discussion that notes significant markers in cell growth and organ development for every significant marker of pregnancy until birth.”

Proponents of the measure, including Arkansas’ Family Council, celebrated the new law, saying this would give public school students a window into the womb and an opportunity to learn about preborn babies.

According to the bill’s language, the Department of Education will work with the Department of Health to determine age-appropriate material for discussions.

Six other states have passed similar legislation requiring academic standards be added to teach students about human development in the womb, including Iowa, Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Dakota and Kansas.

Four of those states passed legislation in the last few months.

All of these legislative efforts share common elements:

  • Requiring schools to teach about fetal development in the womb, often including visual materials.
  • Generally targeting students from 5th grade through 12th grade.

Not surprising, the ACLU of Arkansas opposed the bill, calling it “egregious” and suggested that it would threaten “reproductive rights.”

Under current law, Arkansas protects life in the womb beginning at conception with an exception to save the life of the mother. At present, there are no licensed abortion clinics in the state.

We applaud the state of Arkansas for its efforts to educate the next generation of mothers and fathers about the biological truth of human life in the womb.

It’s time to encourage lawmakers in every state to pass similar legislation.

Image from Getty.

Deputy Secretary of Education Nominee Schwinn Supported DEI, CRT and Comprehensive Sex Ed

More than 25 organizations and 80 individuals urged the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions this month to oppose Penny Schwinn to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of Education.

President Trump nominated Schwinn for the position in January, citing her experience, commitment to school choice and willingness to return education to the states.

Co-signers, including Focus on the Family-allied Arkansas Family Council (AFC), argue Schwinn threatened parents’ rights, supported radical curricula and acted unethically in her previous roles as Chief Deputy Commissioner at the Texas Education Agency and Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education.

“Penny Schwinn’s track record is troubling to many conservatives,” AFC’s Assistant Director David Cox told the Daily Citizen. “Right now, a lot of families feel like their public schools have been used to promote radical ideologies, and there is concern that Schwinn won’t stand up against those ideologies as Deputy Secretary of Education.”

Here are the coalition’s chief concerns.

Threatening Parental Rights

As Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education, Schwinn created a program allowing government officials to enter family’s homes for “child wellbeing checks.” The initiative would have applied to all families, not just those with children in public school.

Though Schwinn quickly nixed the idea following parents’ outrage, the letter argues it’s a black mark on her commitment to parent’s rights.

“‘Child wellbeing checks’ posed a threat to personal property rights and parental rights, contrary to the principles of the Trump administration as well as the U.S. Constitution,” it reads.

These kinds of programs can be used to frighten parents, like Erin Lee, who demand transparency in public schools.  You can learn more about Lee’s story here.

Critical Race Theory

Parents in Williams County, Tennessee sued Schwinn and other education officials in 2022 for violating the state’s ban on Critical Race Theory (CRT).

The suit involves a controversial English curriculum called Wit and Wisdom. When the program failed to meet state education standards in two separate state reviews, Schwinn gave 33 counties waivers allowing them to teach unapproved books and resources, including Wit and Wisdom.

The work-around enraged parents, who complained the program taught principles consistent with CRT, in addition to graphic and age-inappropriate content. Schwinn declined to address parents’ complaints, arguing the program had been taught prior to the state’s CRT ban.

Trisha and James Lucente sued Schwinn, they explained, because the “curriculum was adopted through a process in violation of state law, and over the objections of several parents and educators who raised serious concerns about the graphic, racist and age-inappropriate nature of much of its content.”

The suit is ongoing.

Conflicts of Interest

Schwinn also faced formal consequences for favoritism after issuing Wit and Wisdom waivers.

An international book publisher and several district directors complained Schwinn followed an unfair approval process, disqualifying some curricula after it passed state reviews and, inexplicably, approving others that failed.

Schwinn had previous connections to Wit and Wisdom. She had adopted it for a charter school she founded in Sacramento — the same school now sitting on a Wit and Wisdom publisher panel.

As a result, the Tennessee legislature revoked Schwinn’s ability to issue waivers.

Schwinn has also been embroiled in several contract snafus, the letter explains. In Tennessee, she faced scrutiny for awarding an $8 million dollar contract to her husband’s employer.

Earlier, as Chief Deputy Commissioner at the Texas Education Agency, Schwinn awarded a $4.5 million agreement to a contractor she knew. Auditors eventually determined the contract violated purchasing rules, and Texas Education Agency had to pay the money back.

“If Penny Schwinn does not follow U.S. Department of Education Rules while in Texas, how can she be trusted to lead the Department, much less oversee its elimination?” the letter asks.

DEI

Schwinn’s history with DEI dates back to 2018, according to the letter, when she was a member of Chiefs for Change — a group of education officials working, in part, to implement DEI in schools.

In an interview clip that resurfaced on X, Schwinn describes her core values as, “Equity and integrity for all, no matter what.”

Women’s rights activist Riley Gaines reposted the clip in January, writing,

Anytime someone claims their desired outcome is equity, understand, they’re pushing a communist agenda. NO to Penny Schwinn.
Comprehensive Sex Ed

Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) are radical “rights-based” and “pleasure-based” sex ed curricula that affirm children’s right to consent to sexual activity.

As Chief Deputy Commissioner at the Texas Education Agency, Schwinn nominated several proponents of CSE to Texas’ Health Standards Committee, the body responsible for setting state sex ed standards.

Schwinn nominated Debra Hauser, the president of Advocates for Youth — an LGBT activist organization with ties to Planned Parenthood. The group supports “youth rights to bodily autonomy” and “confidential sexual and reproductive health services.” In other words, kids’ right to engage in sexual activities and treatments without parents’ knowledge or consent.

Hauser was not confirmed to the Health Standards Committee.

Melissa Peskin and Susan Tortolero, also nominated by Schwinn, contributed to It’s Your Game, a federally funded CSE program authored in conjunction with Planned Parenthood.

An analysis of It’s Your Game by Stop CSE, a database documenting problems with radical sex ed, found the middle school program contained nine of 15 harmful elements of CSE, including “[promotion of] premature sexual autonomy.”

Unlike Hauser, Peskin and Tortolero both made the final committee.

Why It Matters

When it comes to education and public schools, parents must be able to make informed decisions about what their child is learning. Schwinn’s checkered past suggests she isn’t an ally parents can count on.

“Parents want to be confident in the leaders who help shape education policies,” Cox concludes. “Unfortunately, Schwinn’s track record just doesn’t provide that confidence.”

Senators need to think long and hard before they cast their votes.

Additional Articles and Resources

Download Equipping Parents for Back-to-School to find out more about what’s happening in schools and how to advocate for your children.

Planned Parenthood Uses Taxes to pay for Abortion, Radical Sex Ed

Sexualizing Schoolchildren: Comprehensive Sex Ed Protect Your Kids From Trans Activism: Look for These Red Flags

Denver Summit Focuses on Safeguarding Children From ‘Transgender’ Medical Harms

The Rocky Mountain Summit on Safeguarding Children from Gender-Affirming Treatment will be held April 6 in Denver. The three-hour event focuses on protecting children from the devastating effects of “transgender” social and medical interventions.

Geared for “parents, educators, medical professionals and concerned citizens,” the summit features two panels that explore how gender ideology harms minors and their families.

The Family Impact Perspectives Panel features Erin and Chloe Lee, January Littlejohn, and Matt and Judith Rey, who will offer personal stories of how transgender social and medical interventions harmed their families.

Dr. Miriam Grossman, Leor Sapir, Candice Jackson and Dr. Michelle Stanford are on the Medical, Legal and Policy Perspectives Panel, which will explore scientific, ethical and legal concerns around “gender-affirming treatment.”

The summit is sponsored by parental rights and child health advocacy groups, including Do No Harm, Parents Defending Education, XX-XY Athletics and Colorado Parent Advocacy Network.

Panelist Erin Lee is a Colorado mom whose preteen daughter was targeted by gender activists when she attended what she thought was an art club after school. Since then, Lee has become an advocate for parents rights in education and an opponent of transgender ideology. Her family’s story is told in the documentary film Art Club.

Like Lee, January Littlejohn is a mom who found out her 13-year-old daughter was being “socially transitioned” at her Florida middle school – without her parents’ knowledge or consent. An activist for parental rights in education, Littlejohn was recently honored by first lady Melania Trump as a special guest at President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

Littlejohn is a Parent Advocate with Do No Harm, a medical advocacy group “focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research and clinical practice.” 

Matt and Judith Rey are activists with Gays Against Groomers, which describes itself as a “nonprofit of gays, lesbians, and others in the community who oppose the sexualization, indoctrination, and mutilation of children under the guise of radical “LGBTQIA+” activism.” Matt was born female but was badly damaged by a double mastectomy and opposite sex hormones that caused “symptoms that resemble Tourette’s and epilepsy.”  

On the medical and legal panel, Dr. Miriam Grossman is a child psychiatrist who has been combatting transgender activism for more than a decade. In her 2009 book You’re Teaching My Child What?: A Physician Exposes the Lies of Sex Education and How They Harm Your Child, she warned parents about sex education and gender ideology being taught in K-12 classrooms.

More recently, Grossman published Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness and was featured in Matt Walsh’s documentary What Is a Woman?

Leor Sapir is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing writer to City Journal and other outlets, focusing on education, culture and pediatric gender medicine. He’s written widely about the lack of scientific evidence for transgender medical procedures.

Dr. Michelle Stanford is a Colorado pediatrician who completed her Pediatric Residency at The Children’s Hospital, Denver. The hospital recently announced it was suspending transgender interventions for confused minors after President Trump signed an executive order saying the federal government would not fund hospitals and medical schools harming children through transgender drugs and surgeries.

Candice Jackson is the Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Education, and has consulted in her legal practice “with groups and individuals challenging the harmful effects of the concept of ‘gender identity’ in laws and policies in schools, employment, and public accommodations.”

To learn more about the conference, click on the link below:

Rocky Mountain Summit on Safeguarding Children from Gender-Affirming Treatment: Clinical Perspectives & Family Impacts, Sunday, April 6, 2:30-5:30 p.m., The Inverness Denver, Englewood, Colorado.

Related Articles and Resources:

ACLU Lawyer Admits ‘Trans Them or They Die’ Warning is False

‘Art Club’ Documentary — One Family’s Escape from Gender Ideology, and the Bigger Trend Sweeping the Nation

‘Everyday Americans’ Honored at Address to Congress

Exclusive Interview: Colorado Parents Expose ‘Gender Cult’ at Public School in New Documentary

Florida Parents Sue School for Helping Teen ‘Transition’ – Without Their Knowledge or Consent

Focus on the Family: Homosexuality Resources; Transgender Resources; Understanding Homosexuality

How to Defeat Gender Ideology, Protect Children and End ‘Trans America’

Key Takeaways from Supreme Court Case on ‘Transgender’ Interventions  

President Trump Signs Order Protecting Children From Transgender Medical Interventions

Protect Your Kids from ‘Trans’ Activism — Look for These Red Flags