Two Teachers Ask to Join Lawsuit Challenging Loudoun School Division’s Transgender Policy
Virginia | August 17, 2021
The legal team representing Byron “Tanner” Cross, the teacher placed on leave after criticizing the Loudoun County Public Schools’ transgender protections, is asking the Circuit Court to add two more teachers to the lawsuit and to halt the school district’s implementation of Policy 8040.
Alliance Defending Freedom filed the request on Monday to add Monica Gill, a history teacher at Loudoun County High School, and Kim Wright, a Smart’s Mill Middle School English teacher, to the suit. The request to change the suit will need to be approved by a Circuit Court judge.
The controversial Policy 8040, which was adopted by the embattled School Board last week, complies with a Virginia mandate that school divisions enact protections for transgender and gender expansive students by the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Under the policy, students are entitled to be called by their chosen name and pronouns, and to use facilities that correspond with their gender identities. The policy, as well as other initiatives to protect marginalized students, have been viewed by some parents in Loudoun as divisive, and have spurred on a recall effort against six members of the School Board… (Excerpts from Loudoun Now Daily)