A Virginia mother filed a federal civil rights complaint Sept. 24 against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), alleging administrators allowed a male student with facial hair to repeatedly enter the girls’ locker room at her daughter’s high school and watch female students change.

Filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the complaint says the 14-year-old daughter first encountered the sophomore boy Sept. 2 in the locker room at West Springfield High School (WSHS). She and other students alleged he stood and watched them undress.

According to the filing, administrators said the male student identifies as female.

The filing alleges that despite multiple objections, school officials failed to intervene. Assistant principals allegedly told the girl’s mother that a staff member had instructed the boy not to enter the locker room, but added he would not be stopped or disciplined.

“After this episode, WSHS administrators called [the girl’s mother] to inform her that the boy has a right to use the girls’ locker room because he identifies as female,” the complaint states.

Court documents also allege that school officials also told the girls they could use a single-occupancy unisex bathroom if they were uncomfortable changing in front of a male student.

On Sept. 22, staff reduced the amount of time the freshman girls had in the locker room to allow “the boy to use the locker room after them without being in their presence,” according to the complaint.

“I’m just dumbfounded that this is even a thing, that I’m having to go to this length in order to protect my child,” the mother told National Review. “At any point, as a parent, your first responsibility is to protect your child. You send them to school, you think they’re safe at school, and my daughter having to worry about a boy looking at her in the locker room is not safe.”

The Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies submitted the complaint on behalf of the mother, and the filing alleges Title IX violations against FCPS.

The district is one of five in Virginia facing potential loss of federal funding after refusing to roll back policies allowing male students to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. As CatholicVote reported in August, Fairfax Superintendent Michelle Reid said at the time the district’s policies already complied with state and federal law.

Elise Winland, Catholic Vote