Embattled northern Virginia school district Loudoun County returned to the news this week over a walkout conducted at one of the high schools. Students upset with a policy allowing transgender individuals to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice walked out of class this week in an exercise of their First Amendment rights.

The reasons the students expressed for the walkout echoed the same concerns of parents and other students who have stood up and spoken out against policies that erase female safe spaces. As with most protests, these students were met with counter-protesters who support the mixed-gendered policy.

Besides the obvious newsworthiness of students walking out of school in opposition to a policy meant to push gender ideology, the other noteworthy aspect of this story is the apparent double standard imposed on these students versus those who support policies such as the one in question. As with most cultural issues today, the gender ideology question has become more of a testament to whose First Amendment rights are upheld and whose aren’t.

High school students in Loudoun County gathered today to ask the Loudoun County School Board to restore girls only and boys only locker rooms and bathrooms in schools. @7NewsDC pic.twitter.com/EKUj18Hnsf

— Nick Minock (@NickMinock) November 1, 2023

From the mouths of babes

This week, between 50 and 100 students walked out of Woodgrove High School in Loudoun County, Virginia, in protest of Policy 8040. The policy allows for non-binary, gender-fluid, and transgender students to use any school bathroom or locker room of their choosing.

A female student explained the obvious dangers and disruption this policy has caused her fellow female peers:

“I stopped using them (the bathrooms) because I don’t know what’s going to happen to me in there.”

RELATED: Disconnect Between ACT Scores & GPAs Indicate We Are Failing Our Children One “A” At a Time

Her concerns and those of her classmates are valid and were a reality for a female student in 2021 in the same school district who was sexually assaulted by a skirt-wearing male student in the female bathroom.

She goes on to explain:

“…there are girls in PE (physical education class) who still get changed in the bathroom stalls in there because they’re afraid of who might waltz in.”

In a time when mental health is at a historic low for America’s youth and young girls and women are bombarded with body shaming propaganda in the media, it’s alarming that they now have to grapple with changing in bathroom stalls for fear a male might share what should be a protected space for girls during a vulnerable activity such as getting naked.

But it’s not just girls sounding the alarms over this policy.

WATCH: Governor @GlennYoungkin joined @foxandfriends to SLAM Loudoun County schools for defying students, parents, and the governor’s commonsense policies at every turn:

“I have a real sense they don’t listen to anybody other than their progressive left friends.” pic.twitter.com/hHP1yWDJxq

— Team Youngkin – Spirit of Virginia (@TeamYoungkin) November 3, 2023

Boys matter too

A male student explained why he was participating in the walkout, stating:

“In the locker rooms in the morning, it’s an invasion of privacy, as I said, because when men and natural-born males are in our locker rooms, and they are showering in the morning, natural-born females can walk in there as they please.”

He goes on to rightly say:

“…that is not OK. And it goes against what we believe in.”

It is easy to forget that boys are also a part of this equation when administrators decide to adopt policies based on left-wing ideologies. Bathrooms and locker rooms aren’t just safe spaces for girls and women, but also for boys and men.

Young boys and men aren’t immune to body shaming culture. The idea of their female peers seeing them in the nude not only opens them up for bullying and possibly compromising situations, but is fundamentally wrong and shouldn’t be what anyone believes in.

Earlier this year, high school students in Perkiomen Valley School District, Pennsylvania, walked out in protest of similar policies.

A male student for that walkout explained:

“Girls—we wanted to protect them. They were upset. They didn’t want men in their bathroom.”

RELATED: Teachers Post Heartbreaking Accounts of The Dangers They Face From Unruly Students

At least young teenage boys are protecting girls, but who will protect the boys? And will their voices be heard?