Northern Virginia has been ground zero for gender policies since 2020. Most recently, Defending Education obtained internal documents from Arlington Public Schools (APS) that showed a sitting school board member pandered to Richard Cox, the 58-year-old registered sex offender who faces more than 20 charges for exposing his genitals to minors at multiple facilities in Arlington and Fairfax counties.
Cox, who identifies as a transgender woman, allegedly exposed himself in women’s locker rooms on multiple occasions at both APS and Arlington County facilities, and the case shows exactly what happens when districts put ideology before safety.
When Cox, who allegedly used aliases, including “Riki Cox,” emailed then-school board candidate and current school board member Kathleen Clark to complain that he was “offended by pool staff,” she responded sympathetically, not to the victims, but to him.
Without any apparent vetting or inquiry into who this individual was, Clark also touted her record as an ally to the LGBTQ community, noting that she “put together a transgender/non-binary competency training … to help educate folks on how to be supportive for their children and an ally to the community,” in what appeared to be an effort to secure Cox’s vote.
Like many school districts, even under President Donald Trump’s administration, APS policy allows anyone to use restrooms or locker rooms based on their chosen gender identity, and, at the time Cox was entering these facilities, they did not check IDs against the sex offender registry. That policy failure allowed this 58-year-old man to access the same facilities as prepubescent girls.
Clark went so far as to express concern about potential “transphobic comments” toward Cox from staff and told Cox: “[You] should be able to use the showers and changing rooms that you are most comfortable using.” Following this exchange, Cox allegedly repeated this behavior six more times in both Fairfax and Arlington County facilities.
By elevating personal self-identification over biological sex, these policies ignored the most basic safeguard of all, physical reality, and in doing so, created the very conditions that allowed Richard Cox to exploit and repeatedly offend.
Despite this exchange, neither Clark nor Virginia Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Abigail Spanberger has had to answer for it.
In fact, it doesn’t appear Spanberger has addressed the Richard Cox case at all. Unsurprising, given her repeated evasiveness on the issue and her refusal to say whether she would repeal Governor Youngkin’s executive directive barring biological men from girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms and sports. That silence, in itself, is an answer.
Specifically, Spanberger voted for the Equality Act in 2019 and again in 2021. The legislation would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected characteristics in public accommodations, education and federally funded programs, and includes a provision that individuals shall not be denied access to shared facilities such as restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.
Despite Spanberger’s record and lack of accountability on the issue, even she couldn’t deny the obvious truth during her debate with Republican opponent Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, admitting, “There should never be nude men in [female] locker rooms.”
Following public concern and media inquiry, APS consulted with county officials, added new signage and guidance for facility users and implemented identification checks for patrons by running names through the sex offender registry for pool access. Arlington County, in contrast, maintained that its practice is not to check IDs in the name of inclusivity.
At the district level, APS Superintendent Francisco Durán, when forced to make a statement on Cox’s actions, focused on his status as a sex offender. Rather than reconsider the district’s policy, he defended it, citing Virginia and Fourth Circuit law, just as other Northern Virginia school districts have done, to justify allowing transgender individuals to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity and to dismiss the Trump administration’s interpretation of Title IX.
The repeated actions and statements, or lack thereof, by officials at every level of government in Northern Virginia make one thing clear: they prioritize the proclivities of Richard Cox over the feelings and fears of parents and their most vulnerable constituents, young girls.
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