A school board in Virginia voted late last week to reverse a policy banning extracurricular clubs at the middle school level following a settlement in a lawsuit brought on behalf of students who wanted to start a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA).
On Friday, the King George County School Board unanimously approved changes to its student organizations policy, the Fredericksburg Free Press reports. The updated policy removes restrictions approved last November on non-curricular student organizations at all but the high school level.
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The board’s vote came a week after a federal judge halted proceedings in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia against the King George County School Board on behalf of two King George Middle School students and their parents, accusing the board of illegally barring the formation of a GSA in violation of the students’ rights under the First Amendment and the federal Equal Access Act.
“Having been advised that the parties have reached a settlement, any further discovery deadlines are stayed until further order of this Court,” Senior U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne wrote in a September 4 order, according to The Advocate.
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The lawsuit, filed early last month, claimed the students met all requirements to establish a student organization at King George Middle School at the beginning of the 2025–2026 school year. But news of the formation of a GSA sparked backlash from parents on social media, leading the board to ban student clubs at the middle school level. According to the complaint, the board “explicitly discussed the GSA controversy as the reason for the policy changes.” It also alleged that superintendent Jesse Boyd’s repeated insistence that the board would not “allow KGMS students to form a group that referenced LGBTQ+ issues in its name or mission” while allowing six other non-curricular student organizations to operate constituted viewpoint discrimination.
Payne’s order reportedly came a day after the parties in the lawsuit attended a settlement conference before a U.S. magistrate. The order did not disclose the settlement’s terms.
While the board and superintendent Boyd did not mention the lawsuit or settlement on Friday, the vote on the policy change came after a closed session Friday morning during which board members were briefed on “actual or probable litigation,” according to the Fredericksburg Free Press.
The updated policy now requires students to provide “proof of written parental permission to form and/or join” an extracurricular club. Student organizations must submit renewal forms each school year that include “a list of students who are currently members” and “proof of written parental permission from each member to renew such membership.”
The change does not immediately establish a GSA at KGMS, nor is it clear whether the settlement includes protections against selective enforcement of the new requirements.
In a Friday press release, the district wrote that the policy changes “further demonstrate the school board’s commitment to emphasizing family involvement, prioritizing transparency, and fostering direct communication between school and home” and “put students and parents first by strengthening parent involvement and ensuring families have an important voice in their children’s participation in student organizations.”
Following the vote, Boyd reportedly thanked the board for “a very long, well-thought-out conversation” about the policies.
Both Boyd and board member Colleen Hoover seemed to suggest that members of the board had been through an ordeal.
“At no time did you waver from your beliefs,” Boyd told the board. “When you signed up for this, I don’t know if anybody said it was going to be easy, and it certainly has been challenging. A lot of people don’t know what goes on behind the scenes.”
Hoover said that “a lot of blood, sweat, and tears” went into the policy discussions, and bemoaned an apparent lack of community support for the board. “We were voted into this position to be here and do what you want us to do, and sometimes when things get difficult, it would be nice to have more community support,” she said.
Board member Ed Frank, meanwhile, appeared to defend the board’s prior decision to restrict student clubs. “I’d also like to state that every student in King George County Schools deserves to be safe, treated with dignity, and protected from bullying,” he said. “My concern is not about denying protection to any child. My concern is age appropriateness, parental transparency, and rules governing extracurricular discussions.”
“In this situation, there is nothing to boast about,” Frank added, “because the real victims are the students who aren’t yet developmentally ready.”
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