Instead of issuing an apology after the ‘transgender’ offender’s arrest on more than 20 charges, the school district’s superintendent doubled down on pro-transgender policies, pledging to ‘foster an inclusive community’ for ‘the LGBTQ+ community.’
ARLINGTON, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) -- A registered sex offender who has spent much of his adult life behind bars now faces more than 20 charges following visits to multiple school and gym locker rooms where, thanks to the local county school board’s radical transgender "inclusion" policies, he was free to expose himself to women and girls.
Simply declaring that he is “transgender” enabled Richard Kenneth Cox, 58, to gain access to Arlington, Virginia’s, Washington Liberty High School swimming pool, which is available for use by the public – including for children's swimming lessons – after school hours.
“Dozens of young girls witnessed this man standing naked in their locker room. That man, it turns out, was a sex offender with a long rap sheet and a proclivity for playing the ‘transgender’ card to gain access to women’s locker rooms,” according to a report by National Review. “He entered girls’ spaces at other public-school-owned pools in Virginia, as well as at a gym and a rec center, by claiming to be transgender.”
“What people fail to understand about what this individual is is he spent twenty years of the last three decades in state prison for sex crimes against children, and yet somehow he was allowed to repeatedly do this,” noted Sean Kennedy, president of Virginians for Safe Communities, in a televised interview with Fox News’ John Roberts.
As it turns out, Cox is registered as a Tier III sex offender, the most extreme classification level, which should have prohibited him from being in close proximity to schools or child programming, but this was somehow obscured or ignored because of his declared “transgender” status.
“It’s really kind of mind boggling that we see people kowtow to this,” said Kennedy. “So many parents are afraid of being shamed or criticized or rejected by the officials that they didn’t say anything.”
One brave mother who did reach out to local authorities, Jen McDougal, said she took her nine-year-old daughter to the locker room after swim practice last September at the Washington-Liberty Aquatics Center located within Washington-Liberty High School.
McDougal told National Review that, at first, she thought that the man had wandered into the wrong place. His face and shoulders were covered with a towel, although his exposed genitals were not, and he stood with his hands at his sides.
When they got to their car, McDougal’s daughter was disturbed by what she saw. The mother sat in the parking lot to see who would leave the facility, according to National Review, and “just knew it was him” when she saw Cox exit. “He had the smirk on his face that was just uncomfortable,” she said.
According to Arlington County Police, Cox is now charged with 12 counts of “Sex Offender being in Proximity to Children” for loitering within 100 feet of school property/gymnasium; three counts of a “Sex Offender Entering School/Child Day Center Property”; four counts of “Indecent Exposure”; two counts of “Taking Indecent Liberties with Children”; and one count of “Identity Theft.”
Despite his long history of committing sexual offenses against children and the recent charges filed against him, local authorities, including the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the Arlington County Board, and the Arlington School Board have resisted changing their policies that allow men like Cox to easily commit their crimes against women and girls.
Instead of issuing an apology following Cox’s arrest, Arlington School District Superintendent Francisco Duran issued a statement doubling down on the school district’s pro-transgender policies.
“Arlington Public Schools will continue to foster an inclusive community for all, including those who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community,” wrote Duran. “Our facilities are designed to be safe, welcoming spaces where our community can come to connect, engage and focus on their health and well-being.”
“My civil rights as a [so-called] transgender person allow me to use a public facility including the restrooms that identify with my gender,” an unrepentant Cox told police in a police body cam video obtained by Washington, D.C.’s, WJLA 7News after a separate incident last year. “Them pulling up my information on the sex offender registry and using it to stop me from exercising my civil rights as a [so-called] transgender person is a criminal misuse of the sex offender registry.”
Cox’s court hearing, originally scheduled for Monday, March 3, has been rescheduled to May 23, 2025.
