‘Most Were Just There to Skip Class’: Untold Story of Walkouts Against Virginia’s New Transgender Student Policies

FCPS Pride rally to support Fairfax County Public Schools' (FCPS) pro-transgender policy outside of the Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church, Va., on June 16, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va.—Most of the students who took part in recent walkouts across Virginia were just there to skip class and didn’t care about the cause of protesting the state’s new transgender student policies, according to an activist debrief recording obtained by The Epoch Times.

On Sept. 16, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released the new transgender student guidelines, whose 30-day public comment period began on Sept. 26. According to the new policies (pdf), public schools can’t affirm a student’s gender without parents’ written requests. In addition, bathroom and locker room use is to be based on students’ sex, defined as the biological sex at birth. Student sports participation should be sex-based as well, unless federal laws require otherwise.

The debrief was held on Sept. 28, a day after the walkouts. The demonstrations’ organizer, Pride Liberation Project (PLP), a youth LGBTQ advocacy group based in Fairfax County, reported participation from nearly 100 schools, mainly concentrated in Fairfax County and other counties in northern Virginia: Loudoun, Prince William, and Arlington.

‘People Weren’t Actually Interested' in the Cause

“Yesterday, at the school walkout we had, we had about 200 students participating. And most of the students were just there to skip class,” said one student organizer at the debrief. “And when I was handing out flyers yesterday, most of the flyers I handed out got handed right back to me because people weren’t actually interested in the cause for the walkout. They just wanted to skip class.”

Another responded, “I definitely had a lot of those people at my school as well.

“Honestly, they don’t realize it, but they are definitely helping our cause. They are bolstering our numbers; we can count them as our people who walked out for the Pride Liberation Project for these walkouts across the state.”

A third coordinator chimed in, “When helicopters are recording your school, they’re not seeing which one’s caring and which ones don’t. They’re just seeing the numbers.”

“So at the end of the day, if you had 200 students, the news saw 200 students regardless of how they actually felt in that moment, and that made a really big impact collectively,” she added.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the PLP for comment.

‘Terrifying’ and ‘Predatory’

The mother who recorded the meeting learned about the walkouts on the day of the demonstrations from her daughter, a sophomore at a high school in the Virginia Beach City Public Schools district. On their way home at the end of the school day, the daughter mentioned the walkouts; she wasn’t sure what was happening and didn’t join the activity. She said it had something to do with preferred pronouns.

The mother told her daughter to do an internet search, which pulled up news articles and the PLP name. Later, the mother looked up the entity’s website and thought it was too professional for a self-described “student-run” group. She then found out about the debriefing meeting and joined it. As she suspected, most in the walkouts didn’t know what the new policy was about.

She also found out information that she considered worse than that.

“I’m pretty pessimistic at this point. For it to shock me, it’s pretty bad,” the mother told The Epoch Times. A “resource for outed students” private Discord channel offered to provide gender-fluid students with housing, transportation, money, and cover/alibi if the students didn’t have support from their parents.

A screenshot of the “resource for outed students” Discord page. Screenshot via The Epoch Times

A screenshot of the “resource for outed students” Discord page. Screenshot via The Epoch Times

“It’s like kidnapping. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s terrifying,” the mother added. “It’s exploiting children for political gain and also encouraging them to leave their homes. The parents would have no idea where they are.”

She worries that although schools would be required to get parents’ consent on changing pronouns or gender identity under the new guidelines, the schools might not even know if organizations such as PLP would actually provide such “student resources.”

“Unless you’re monitoring your kids’ devices nonstop, you would have no way of knowing. And in these groups, no one has their real names or anything. And so they’re, ultimately, a bunch of strangers,” she said.

“I’m sorry; it’s very predatory,” she added.

School Districts’ Compliance Expected

The new policies reverse the previous guidelines, which define transgender as a student’s “self-identifying term.” Those rules, which took effect in March 2021 under former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, ask schools to consider not disclosing a student’s gender identity to the parents “if a student is not ready or able to safely share” it with their family.

Lars Griffin, a college student who graduated from a Fairfax County high school last year, protests the new “malicious misgendering” policy—a new requirement that punishes students for not using preferred pronouns to address transgender students—outside of the school board meeting at the Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church, Va., on June 16, 2022. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times

Responding to a reporter’s question about the new policies taking away schools as transgender students’ “only safe place,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said at an event in Leesburg on Sept. 20, “Parents had known these children from before they were born. And they understand them, and they love them.”

“And I think the previous administration’s policies, which specifically encouraged hiding from parents these kinds of discussions, were wrong,” he added. “I just can’t conceive of a moment where there’s an important thing going on in a child’s life, where a teacher, a counselor, an administrator wants to exclude parents.”

He also encouraged people to read the new policy. He said the policy is about respecting children’s dignity, privacy, and safety.

“The word ‘bullying’ shows up in these draft guidelines 36 times.”

He said school boards should issue policies consistent with the VDOE model policies; the adoption is in Virginia law.

“Just like everything else, protecting parents’ fundamental rights to make decisions for their children is in the Virginia code,” he added. “I fully expect that each one of the school divisions should comply.”

The deadline for adopting the new VDOE guidelines is Jan. 1, 2023.