Virginia mom criticizes school board for ‘totalitarian’ rule that could punish students for misgendering peers

“I think it’s inappropriate, completely, for the school to be involved in something so far outside of general education for children,” Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, who has three sons in the Fairfax County Public Schools system, told Fox News Digital.

“It’s clearly an activist board we have. It’s basically a totalitarian regime. They like to ban everything they’re against, and mandate everything they’re for,” she said.  

The board of the Fairfax County Public Schools in the northern Virginia city is voting on updates to the Students Rights and Responsibilities (SRR) handbook on May 26, including updated rules that make “malicious deadnaming” and “malicious misgendering” of classmates a Level 4 offense. Violation of the rule allows for a suspension up to five days “if frequency and intensity are present.” 

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“The point of education is reading, writing, math, science, factual history. It’s not to get lessons in pronouns,” she said.