Virginia school district sued after repeatedly changing rules to block LGBTQ student club
King George Middle School welcomed other clubs while administrators repeatedly moved the goalposts when it involved LGBTQ students
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According to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, a Virginia middle school has gone out of its way to prevent a “Gay-Straight Alliance” group from forming and meeting. At first I thought this lawsuit was just in response to a straight-up denial of the group, but the more details you learn, you realize this district has gone out of its way to make sure this particular club never meets.
The drama began last August, when a seventh grader approach a teacher at King George Middle School about being the sponsor of the club (one of the prerequisites). With that person secure, they went ahead and filled out the necessary paperwork.
But within a couple of weeks, parents began complaining on a local Facebook group and doxxed the faculty sponsor, accusing her of grooming kids and demanding she be fired.
Instead of fully backing the group and sponsor, the school board and superintendent said they would put the GSA group “on pause” while they investigated matters… even though there was nothing to investigate.
The only legal way to prevent this group from forming was to ban all student-led non-curricular groups, per the Equal Access Act… but in October, the School Board announced a different plan: They would let the principals get the say-so on any new student-led groups—and if the principal’s decision was appealed, the superintendent would serve as “final decisionmaker.” (The level of micro-managing here was beyond absurd.) They also said all new groups needed at least 10 members, something they completely pulled out of nowhere.
Even outside of that, board members argued that a GSA club would fail an “age-appropriateness” test… as if these students would gather each week to have orgies. Apparently, gathering to discuss how you’re persecuted by others is too mature, but religious clubs that meet to discuss how non-believers will be tortured for all eternity are perfectly fair game.
It was at this point that the Plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote a letter to the school board saying this delay was unconstitutional. (They never heard back.)
The school board only got worse after that.
In November, they approved a policy that only allowed non-curricular clubs at the high school level, effectively banning the GSA in a middle school. (Even though Virginia law defines “secondary” education to include middle school, meaning you can’t treat that school different from a high school...)
The irony in all of this is that the school board attempted to play things neutral… but so very clearly singled out the GSA group. At one point, middle school principal Dr. Casey Nice suggested the kids form a “PRISM Club”… which is similar to a Gay-Straight Alliance but doesn’t reference those identities. But superintendent Dr. Jesse Boyd said it was still a no-go “because it was connected to LGBTQ+ topics.“ (The students weren’t fans of the proposal anyway.)
It got worse: Dr. Nice told one of the students’ mothers that the club might be approved if it was renamed the “Kindness Club” or the “Safe Space Group,” also erasing the LGBTQ+ identities. The students refused to play along.
This is how things went for months.
Administrators kept finding new reasons to prevent the GSA from forming while still breaking the law. The middle school allowed other non-curricular clubs to exist (like Yearbook Club and Robotics Club) but refused to approve the Gay-Straight Alliance. They even approved an outdoor club that had students “skinning squirrels.” What’s the curricular tie-in for that? Who knows.
That became an issue when a “Fellowship of Christian Athletes” club tried to form but couldn’t because of the new rules… and yet, the administrators attempted to justify approval of the FCA by saying it was about leadership, which would make it “curricular.” (Bullshit.)
That’s why the ACLU of Virginia and Potomac Law Group are now suing the district.
Their clients have done everything by the book, only to have the school board and administrators serve as obstacles every step of the way.
“King George County Schools cannot move the goalposts to prevent an organization that promotes respect and equality for LGBTQ+ students from existing just because school board members disagree with its message,” said ACLU-VA Staff Attorney Julia Kahn. “The First Amendment and Equal Access Act protect all students, and the school board cannot pick and choose who the rules apply to. Why this club, and not others?”
…
“Student clubs help students build community, find belonging, and thrive, and when schools offer those opportunities, the law requires that they be available on equal terms to all students,” said Mary Rohmiller, partner at Potomac Law Group. “But King George County Schools appears to be applying a double standard to the GSA at its middle schools. The students at the heart of this case are not asking for special treatment – they're asking for equal treatment.”
It’s such an absurd set of facts for something that probably wouldn’t have been an issue at all if they had just said yes at the very beginning—who gives a damn if angry conservative parents complain? They complain about everything, never with any justification, so why not simply ignore them?
Maybe we know the answer. According to The Advocate, this particular school board has been anti-trans for a while now:
The Advocate reported in January that the board had unanimously adopted a policy directing staff to use only the names and pronouns listed in students’ official records. The policy also restricts restroom access, overnight accommodations, and participation in sex-separated activities based on sex assigned at birth.
For now, the lawsuit accuses the district of violating the First Amendment and the Equal Access Act. The Plaintiffs include two (unnamed) students and their parents. One of the students will still be in eighth grade this coming school year, meaning this case can’t just be dismissed as moot.
What the district’s actions make clear, however, is that this was never about procedure, or “age-appropriateness,” or some distinction between curricular and non-curricular clubs. Those were excuses they invented after the fact to block the group from forming. Every time the students met one requirement, administrators created another. The goalposts kept moving. And they made clear their biggest concern was that people might recognize that there’s an LGBTQ club on campus—one where students might identify as such openly. The only option those kids were given was to make themselves invisible.
That’s why this lawsuit is such a big deal. These students are showing more integrity than the adults running their school system. They understand that renaming their club to hide who they are is nothing more than cowardice.
The King George County School Board has also made a massive and entirely avoidable mistake. Instead of following the law, they catered to the whims of a right-wing Facebook mob. This whole lawsuit will cost the district time and money—all of which could have been avoided if they just did the right thing in the first place.
Maybe what we need is an internet mob of property tax payers outraged that their tax money is being spent on legal fees to defend the board’s bigotry rather than the education of their children.
And once again, the homophobes falsely accuse others of trying to groom kids while they themselves actually are trying to groom kids.
What are they so very afraid of?