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VA judge rules lawsuit can proceed in student's free speech case

VA judge rules lawsuit can proceed in student's free speech case


VA judge rules lawsuit can proceed in student's free speech case

In a temporary but promising win for free speech in Virginia's largest public school district, a court has ruled students can legally challenge transgender-friendly pronoun usage and bathroom polices on constitutional grounds.

In a ruling last week in Fairfax County, Circuit Judge Brett Kassabian ruled against Fairfax County Schools and on behalf of the unnamed student. The school argued the student did not have standing to sue but the judge sided with the student, according to a related Daily Signal story.

AFN reported in March America First Legal had filed a lawsuit on behalf of the student, a high school senior and self-described Catholic, who refused to use other students’ made-up names and pronouns.

The teen girl also fought back to stop male boys from entering the girls’ restrooms in the school.

Fairfax County, known for its wealthy suburbs paid for by U.S. taxpayers, has a population of 1.1 million in a suburban ring around Washington, D.C.

Back in 2020, Fairfax County Schools jumped on the transgender bandwagon with supposed guidance for “Gender-Expansive and Transgender Students.”

Four years later, students are required to sign a “Students Rights and Responsibilities” form. The document, 70 pages in all, refers to “chosen names and pronouns” on page 8.

Josh Hetzler, legal counsel at Founding Freedoms Law Center, tells AFN the school policy attempts to both compel and prohibit speech, under use of force, even if the student disagrees with it.

“And not only they disagree with,” he adds, “but messages that are objectively untrue."

Judge Kassabian has given the school district 21 days to file a response to his ruling, according to The Daily Signal.