YORK COUNTY, Va. — A York County judge threw out a lawsuit centered on the Virginia Department of Education's transgender policies.
Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit back in February, after a York County student said her York County school had allowed the "mistreatment of transgender students."
The student, who is only referred to as Jane Doe, said a teacher refused to use her preferred pronouns, despite having a letter with written parental permission. Lawyers claimed the school did not offer any solution other than rearranging her entire class schedule to avoid that teacher.
Now a judge has thrown out the lawsuit, citing procedural grounds such as sovereign immunity and statute of limitations.
In a joint statement attorneys with the ACLU said in part: “The Virginia Department of Education didn’t want to defend its anti-trans model policies in a court of law because it knew they can’t stand up to scrutiny."
The transgender policies regarding students at Virginia public schools went into effect in 2023 under Governor Glenn Youngkin.
These policies sparked state-wide protests as the new measures rolled back accommodations made for transgender students such as using preferred pronouns, and increased parental notifications.
While Youngkin’s office has not responded to our request for comment on the suit, the governor previously told 13News Now that the model policy is “completely consistent with federal policies.”
“There’s no light between what they can and can’t do. It’s very clear. The only choice they have is to adopt the model policies as written or adopt policies consistent with them," Youngkin said.
Attorneys with the ACLU said they are monitoring another lawsuit in Hanover County that is also filed on behalf of another unidentified student regarding the state's transgender policies.
Attorneys released a statement: “If the state discriminates against you or your child, you should be able to do something about it. Unfortunately, the court’s ruling today means that our client will not have that right. We’re hopeful other courts will protect Virginians’ access to justice when they consider the same issue on behalf of other transgender students whose school districts relied on VDOE’s dangerous policies to discriminate against them.”
13News Now reached out to both the Virginia Department of Education and York County Public Schools, but did not receive a response.