Mark Spooner | Fairfax Schools Monitor

As recently reported HERE and HERE, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has announced that it will not comply with the Virginia Department of Education’s recently-issued model transgender policy. The refusal violates a Virginia statute that expressly requires school boards throughout the Commonwealth to adopt policies consistent with the model policy. In defying the law, FCPS has thrown down the gauntlet and dared the Attorney General to sue.

It appears that a lawsuit may in fact be coming. Governor Youngkin has recently stated that compliance with the model policy is mandatory and that school boards “will comply.” Another tea leaf appeared today. The Attorney General, Jason Miyares, at the request of Governor Youngkin, has issued a ten-page legal analysis, concluding that the model policy complies with all applicable federal and state civil rights laws. The text of the opinion is HERE. This seems to be a preliminary step toward filing proceedings in court.

If the Attorney General is forced to sue, and if FCPS doesn’t then withdraw its rejection of the model policy, FCPS will incur very substantial legal fees, perhaps several hundred thousand dollars, in resisting common sense rules that balance respect and compassion for troubled teens against parental rights and the privacy interests of non-transgender students. FCPS’ one-sided policy, which enshrines the desires of a tiny minority over majority rights, continues to be baffling.

County resident Mark Spooner, a retired attorney, is the founder and editor of Fairfax Schools Monitor, where this analysis was first published.