Parents and transgender activists clashed in Arlington after revelations that a 58-year-old sex offender used the city’s transgender bathroom policies to gain access to a high school girl’s locker room.
Richard K. Cox, was arrested in December on charges of indecent exposure and sex offender trespassing at a school. Cox, a biological male, claimed to be transgender and entered the girl’s locker room at Washington Liberty High School during open community hours. He is alleged to have also entered the girl’s locker rooms at Wakefield High School swimming pool and Arlington County’s Barcroft Sports & Fitness Center.
Cox is already a convicted sex offender.
Arlington Public Schools share swim facilities with the community.
Arlington Public Schools Superintendent issued a statement expressing support for ID checks against the sex-offender database but emphasizing the current APS diversity policy saying the district “will continue to foster an inclusive community for all, including members who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community.”
Some parents rallied to support the transgender community.
“The gender identity of the person who entered the pool locker room is completely irrelevant to this conversation,” said one parent at a school board meeting.
Other parents and community leaders spoke passionately against the current policy demanding that women’s spaces be reserved for those with female anatomy.
“We also need everybody, not just the registered sex offenders, but all males, out of women’s spaces, because we can’t tell the difference, and it doesn’t matter to us. We don’t want any naked men around us,” said Arlington resident Mariah Burton Nelson. Nelson regularly swings at the Washington Liberty High School pool.
“I am a Democrat and a Lesbian, an athlete, and a writer,” Nelson said speaking to the Arlington County Board. “And I am speaking for women and girls who want safe private and exclusively female locker rooms.”
Women raised concerns about Cox’s actions as early as September, but the concerns were dismissed by staff citing transgender access policies. Cox is alleged to have committed numerous offenses between October 11 and his arrest December 2.
Arlington County School Board meetings are open to th