The parents who sued Virginia Beach’s school board over its transgender policies are dropping their suit.

“We applaud the Virginia Beach School Board for its action last week in adopting transgender policies that protect the rights of all parents and students,” said Charles Cooper, an attorney with law firm Cooper and Kirk, which was representing the two women named as plaintiffs in the suit.

Cooper and Kirk is a high-powered Washington, D.C. law firm known for working on cases for major conservative figures and causes.

The pair of mothers of Virginia Beach students filed the suit in September, after Virginia Beach’s School Board spent months debating the policies. 

The suit argued the school board lacked the authority to delay adopting Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s model policies, which were finalized in July and went into effect in August. 

At a meeting earlier this month, the school board adopted policies that mirror the state’s models. That includes prohibiting students from going by names or pronouns that don’t match those found in their official school records. 

Students and transgender advocates rallied at meetings for more than a year in opposition, saying Youngkin’s policies endanger trans youth.

A state law passed in 2020 says local school districts have to at least adopt policies in line with the state’s models. That was an attempt by Democrats to push conservative school boards to adopt then-Gov. Ralph Northam’s trans-friendly policies. But without an enforcement mechanism, only 10% of school boards across the state ever did.

While Virginia Beach has fallen in line with the governor’s policies, Suffolk is considering policies that take a different tack. Suffolk Superintendent John B. Gordon presented a policy that goes beyond the state’s, including additional staff training on handling LGBTQ students and grappling with how disclosures will be made to parents in “a non-stigmatizing way.”

Suffolk’s school board delayed a vote on Gordon’s policies, citing Virginia Beach’s process.

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