This report was published here first.

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (7News) — The Defense of Freedom Institute (DFI) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education that says a boy was watching girls change in Fairfax County’s West Springfield High School girls’ locker room, but when a girl complained, a teacher said there was nothing they could do.

The DFI is requesting the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to investigate the actions of school officials, consider sanctions against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) as authorized under Title IX, and “put FCPS on clear notice that failure to comply with federal law in immediately restoring sex-separated access by its students to its locker rooms and other intimate facilities will result in the withdrawal of federal funding.”

FCPS’s policy that allows students the option to access bathrooms and locker rooms based on gender identity, not biological sex, is under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Education because the department believes the policy violates Title IX. However, the school system claims its policies are protected by the Fourth Circuit decision on Gavin v. Gloucester County School Board.

The DFI says on September 2, 2025, a 14-year-old girl entered the girls’ locker room at West Springfield High School and changed into clothes for gym class, but as she was leaving the locker room, the girl encountered a male student who has “facial hair” and was “wearing pants that were so tight they clearly outlined his genitalia” standing inside the girls’ locker room and watching the girls preparing for P.E. class.

DFI says the girl was upset by the boy’s presence in the locker room, where she had just changed, and other girls were in various stages of undress as they prepared for their required gym class. DFI says that when the girl told a teacher that there was a boy in the girls’ locker room, the “teacher told her daughter there was nothing that teacher could do about the boy’s intruding into the private facility reserved for females and watching girls as they changed.”

The parent of the girl called West Springfield High School administrators multiple times, but she did not receive a response from the school, DFI says. But when she finally got in touch with the school, DFI says an “administrator suggested that, if the daughter was uncomfortable undressing in the presence of a boy in the girls’ locker room, she should use a different facility, such as a unisex bathroom.”

DFI says the boy entered the locker room again on September 10th and 11th and watched the girls change for gym class.

“As of the filing of this complaint, WSHS is requiring daughter and her freshman classmates to rush to change for P.E. class in order to allow the boy to enter the girls’ locker room and change clothes with his 10th-grade female classmates,” DFI’s letter to the U.S. Department of Education says. “Upon information and belief, the boy identifies as female but, in addition to entering the girls’ locker room and watching the girls change, has also used the boys’ locker room and bathrooms at the school. Moreover, upon information and belief, multiple other parents of 9th-grade female students at WSHS have complained to the school’s administrators about the presence of the boy in the girls’ locker room prior to their P.E. class.”

On Wednesday, 7News requested a response from FCPS and will update this story when we receive one.

Right now, the U.S. Department of Education is preparing to halt some federal funding to FCPS, Loudoun County Public Schools, Prince William County Public Schools, Alexandria City Public Schools, and Arlington Public Schools because of their transgender locker room and bathroom policies.

Multiple controversies arose this year as a result of these policies in Northern Virginia, including two boys being suspended by Loudoun County Public Schools who were uncomfortable with a female student in the boys’ locker room, and a tier three male sex offender accessing Arlington Public Schools girls’ locker rooms because he claimed to be a transgender woman.

The issue has gained national attention. Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears has been outspoken about the issue as she runs for governor this year. Earle-Sears says she opposes policies that allow biological males to use female locker rooms and bathrooms and compete in women’s sports.

On Friday, 7News Reporter Nick Minock asked the Democratic candidate running for Virginia Governor, Abigail Spanberger, “can you tell us directly, do you support biological males, who say they’re women, using women’s locker rooms and bathrooms and competing in women’s sports?”

Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger:

The circumstance as this legal case plays out is really one of we’ve had court cases settled or judged here in Virginia in the fourth district, the former Gavin Grimm case related to bathroom usage. And in fact, the argument is the assessment is there needs to be much clearer guidance in terms of what is an executive order’s binding assessment of Title IX versus what has been a decision of a court. But ultimately, the real impact here is, once again, it is the Trump administration taking dollars away from Virginia. Threatening education dollars to our public schools is an attack on Virginia’s kids. It’s an attack on our economy. It’s an attack on Virginians. And as governor, the important thing is, as a candidate for governor, the important thing, the important priority for me is to ensure that we have the best public schools in the entire country. And the reality is, when we have a president who is coming after Virginia, our education system, whether it’s K-12 or whether it is our public universities that is harmful to Virginia, our ability to educate our kids and ultimately our economy.

Nick Minock: “But do you personally support these policies?”

Spanberger’s staff stopped 7News from asking a follow-up question and moved on.

7News tried asking the locker room and bathroom question again later on, but Spanberger walked away. And when 7News Reporter Nick Minock caught up with Spanberger and asked the question again, Spanberger refused to answer and went into her car.

In 2022, when Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced his model policy to block student access to locker rooms and bathrooms that don’t match their biological sex, Spanberger wrote, “Gov. Youngkin’s mandate targets vulnerable children, and it’s downright shameful to think that an elected leader would punch down at kids to score political points. This mandate rolls back the rights of kids to be themselves in schools.”

In 2023, Spanberger also voted in favor of allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports.