Virginia dad and mom increase over $125k in simply days to maintain trans locker room case alive

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FIRST ON FOX: Dad and mom from Northern Virginia late Wednesday evening surpassed the huge $125,000 bond {that a} choose ordered them to pay to defend their sons, who have been suspended and located liable for sexual harassment after objecting to a transgender classmate utilizing their male-only locker room, in court docket.

The dad and mom, who're suing the Loudoun County Public Faculties district, raised over $125,000 forward of the Friday deadline and even met the unique Wednesday deadline earlier than it was granted an extension.

They have been initially ordered by a federal choose final Friday to give you the funds by the tip of the day on Wednesday in the event that they wished to maintain preventing for his or her sons in court docket. The $125,000 "bond" was ordered by the choose within the case, Leonie Brinkema, who stated the cash is supposed to make sure that the dad and mom would be capable to pay for the varsity district's legal professional charges in the event that they find yourself dropping.

"We've critical doubts that such a bond will be legally required, and this requirement that the plaintiffs put up the cash to pay the federal government’s attorneys charges is definitely very uncommon and surprising, particularly when the federal government acknowledged in court docket that its insurance coverage coverage is masking authorized prices," Josh Hetzler, co-counsel for the dad and mom, stated in a press release to Fox Information Digital.

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<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/08/672/378/virginia-loudoun-locker-room-transgender-policieis-school.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/08/1344/756/virginia-loudoun-locker-room-transgender-policieis-school.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/08/931/523/virginia-loudoun-locker-room-transgender-policieis-school.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/08/1862/1046/virginia-loudoun-locker-room-transgender-policieis-school.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> Fox Information Digital interviewed two Virginia dad and mom whose youngsters have been accused of sexual harassment for complaining a few woman utilizing their locker room. (Fox Information/istock)

Earlier than taking the case to federal court docket, Hetzler, Wolfe and Smith sought different avenues to make sure the 2 boys weren't suspended or marked as sexual harassers on their everlasting report. They sought to enchantment the Loudoun County Public Faculties Title IX sexual harassment investigation discovering, which got here after the boys have been videotaped by a organic feminine who recognized as transgender contained in the boys' locker room. The video caught them outwardly complaining to one another about the truth that there was a lady utilizing their services, which resulted within the boys' suspension and the district's harassment discovering towards them.

Nonetheless, the enchantment was finally denied by the district, so the choice was made to take the matter to federal court docket with the assistance of Trump-aligned regulation group America First Authorized (AFL).

In the meantime, on Friday, Decide Brinkema, for the Japanese District of Virginia, prolonged a temporary halt to the boys' suspension in order that they might proceed attending class because the case is adjudicated. However, concurrently, Brinkema additionally expressed "vital weaknesses in facets of the plaintiffs' allegations" in one other ruling that very same day, which finally required Wolfe and Smith to drum up $125,000 over the following three enterprise days in the event that they wished to maintain preventing the matter in court docket.

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"Luckily, we've an extension till Friday," Ian Prior, AFL's legal professional aiding on the case, stated because the Wednesday bond deadline approached, and it appeared they'd not have the funds.

In keeping with Prior, it isn't fully "atypical" for the prevailing get together in a preliminary injunction to must put up a bond. Nonetheless, Prior famous, in public curiosity circumstances reminiscent of this one, bond necessities are sometimes set very low, typically even at $0. Prior additionally stated he was not conscious of bonds being required to cowl attorneys' charges.

<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/09/672/378/virginia-loudoun-transgender-locker-room-harrassment-suspended.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/09/1344/756/virginia-loudoun-transgender-locker-room-harrassment-suspended.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/09/931/523/virginia-loudoun-transgender-locker-room-harrassment-suspended.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/09/1862/1046/virginia-loudoun-transgender-locker-room-harrassment-suspended.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"><source media="(min-width: 1280px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/09/720/405/virginia-loudoun-transgender-locker-room-harrassment-suspended.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/09/1440/810/virginia-loudoun-transgender-locker-room-harrassment-suspended.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="405" width="720"> A transgender flag waves at an undisclosed location on an undisclosed date (left). A choose makes use of his gavel (proper). Dad and mom face a $125K bond deadline in Loudoun County, Va. on October 15. (Getty Pictures/iStock)

"Normally, it's completed the place an organization is enjoined from doing one thing, like promoting a sure sort of widget for instance, and the injunction will price them one thing," Prior instructed Fox Information Digital. "The bond helps guarantee that if the prevailing get together doesn't finally succeed, the opposite get together is made entire from the influence the injunction had. We're not conscious of bonds being required to cowl attorneys' charges nevertheless."

In Brinkema's order, she explicitly indicated the bond was to make sure "that if the defendant prevails on dispositive pre-trial motions, it might probably get better from that bond its legal professional's charges."

Wolfe and Smith, following the bond order, arrange an internet fundraiser to assist them increase the funds. As of Wednesday morning, the net fundraiser had collected round $50,000, however earlier than the tip of the day, a single donation of $50,000, from Michael Dearing, who seems to be an angel investor, pushed the dad and mom inside $25,000 of their $125,000 purpose.

Video from a locker room in Stone Bridge Excessive Faculty the place a trans male was in a male lavatory. (Loudoun County Sheriff's Workplace)

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When requested about what their plans could be in the event that they have been unable to lift the complete quantity, Prior indicated that there have been "a large number of choices" that may very well be taken.

"The extra that the scholars increase, the better it is going to be to publish bond, even when they don't get to the complete $125k," Prior instructed Fox Information Digital. "To be clear, the case doesn't get dismissed with out posting the bond – moderately, we'd lose the preliminary injunction and the suspensions would happen instantly and the findings could be put into the scholars' data at a time once they would possible be making use of for higher education."