A local megachurch is rallying behind three male students at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, Virginia, who are being investigated for sexual harassment after complaining about a female student who identifies as a boy in the boys’ locker room.
On Sunday, Gary Hamrick, senior pastor of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, introduced the boys to his congregation and pledged his support for them.
“When I had heard about these three young men who attended Stone Bridge High School had been accused of sexual harassment just because they questioned a female in the boys’ locker room, I just felt compelled, as a pastor in the area, to bring our church together to support them and to show our support for their rights to be in a boys’ locker room without the invasion of privacy of a biological female,” Hamrick told WJLA.
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The boys have not been publicly identified and are being investigated for sexual harassment under Title IX civil rights law, the local outlet reported.
The female student reportedly entered the boys’ locker room and recorded them raising questions about her presence. The boys also expressed their discomfort with the female student being in their locker room and questioned why she was not using the female locker room.
Hamrick told thousands of congregants across three services on Sunday that the probe on the male students was made possible by a policy passed by the Loudoun County School Board in 2021 known as Policy 8040 and Regulation 8040.
“When I informed people what Policy 8040 is all about in Loudoun County, which is that students can identify by whatever gender they choose, and on top of that, they can then use whatever bathrooms or locker rooms they want according to their preferred gender identity, and on top of that, parents cannot be notified by Loudoun County administrators or teachers, and that’s when people in our church just gasped, like, ‘what kind of a policy is this?” Hamrick told WJLA.
“And so when I mentioned how this policy has now been put into full force, and these three young men have been charged with sexual harassment because of violating Policy 8040, our congregation just rallied behind them. They stood to their feet. They applauded these young men when I brought them up on stage.”
The Founding Freedoms Law Center, the legal arm of the socially conservative and Christian fundamentalist lobbying organization Family Foundation of Virginia, announced earlier this month that they are representing the male students who are sophomores.
“The female student filed a complaint to school officials after she secretly video-recorded several boys in the locker room, in which some were discussing among themselves discomfort and confusion about why there was a girl changing in their locker room,” the firm explained in a statement. “One of our clients (whose identity is being withheld for his protection) simply said, ‘Why is there a girl in the locker room?’ The other boy had gone to the P.E. teacher and the Principal beforehand to express discomfort over a girl sharing the locker room with the boys.”
At the request of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares will investigate Loudoun County Public Schools over allegations that it “targeted” the Stone Bridge High School boys who expressed discomfort with the girl in the boys’ locker room.
“It’s deeply concerning to read reports of yet another incident in Loudoun County schools where members of the opposite sex are violating the privacy of students in locker rooms,” Youngkin stated. “Even more alarming, the victims of this violation are the ones being investigated — this is beyond belief.”
The U.S. Department of Education also launched a formal investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools and other school districts regarding their policies related to gender identity.
“This is yet another egregious example of how LCPS continues to defy state law on transgender policies as well as President Trump’s recent executive orders. These high school boys did absolutely nothing wrong, and LCPS needs to end this baseless investigation immediately,” said Josh Hetzler, legal counsel for Founding Freedoms Law Center.
Seth Wolfe, father of one of the boys, defended his son from what he called unfair targeting.
“My 15 year-old son is being unfairly targeted for simply asking a basic question that any boy would be asking in that situation,” he said. “It’s astonishing that Loudoun school officials are subjecting him to a formal investigation for a bogus charge that could derail his life.”
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