Virginia's largest school district has openly announced it will defy the governor's policies on students claiming to be transgender, including guidelines for bathrooms and locker rooms.
This week, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid said the district would defy Gov. Glenn Youngkin's (R-VA) new guidance on bathrooms and pronouns.
In a message to FCPS families, Reid said that after a careful "detailed legal review," its current policies are "consistent" with the state's anti-discrimination laws, which aim to limit claims of child transgender identity.
Reid declared that students will be able to maintain their "chosen names and pronouns" and access facilities, activities, and trips "consistent with their gender identity."
According to Youngkin's policies, students must use the bathroom corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. The guidelines also state that school activities are to be separated by sex, adding that student participation will be restricted to the sex assigned to the individual at birth instead of their "chosen" gender identity.
Parents Defending Education claim the school district is ignoring the governor's policies, saying the FCPS is more concerned with satisfying the woke Left than protecting the innocence of children.
"Per usual, leadership at FCPS is more concerned with appeasing liberal activists than they are in ensuring ALL students feel safe in schools and on-campus facilities," Parents Defending Education senior advisor Michele Exner said in a press release. "The FCPS position potentially forces girls to share their locker rooms, sports fields, and even lodging on field trips with biological males. This is insanity, and parents should not stand for it."
On the contrary, Virginia's Department of Education believes that "parents have the right to make decisions concerning their children" and that the "policies shall be drafted to safeguard parents' rights concerning their child, and to facilitate the exercise of those rights."
The district concluded that despite Youngkin's plans to keep children away from the radical Left's plans to indoctrinate minors, they would continue allowing students to use their preferred pronouns and let transgender people participate on female sports teams.