Virginia's Fairfax County Public Schools do not require students to have parental consent to change their names or genders

School training materials from Fairfax County Public Schools stated that parental consent is not required for students to change their names and genders on official records. Fox News obtained the training documents on Thursday.

The Fairfax County Public Schools documents require teachers to allow students to change their pronouns and use their preferred bathrooms and locker rooms.

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, a mother of three children attending a Fairfax County school and a member of the conservative Independent Women's Forum, told Fox News, "They are getting into areas that are parental rights areas, and you should be able to have conversations with your children based on your own personal values, about what you think about gender identity or any kind of identity affirmation as it pertains to your children."

Chris Corbett, a father of two children attending a school in the district, told the news organization that the school is "having secretive behavior with kids and you're discussing highly sexualized content that breaches boundaries."

Corbett told Fox News that his daughter had been asked to state her pronouns in every class. He said, "Yet they don't have teachers for some of the classrooms. So it's, you wonder where we're spending our energy and effort and resources on this type of work when we really should be focused on educating and hiring people."

On Thursday, police arrested Darren Thornton, a former school guidance counselor at a Fairfax County school. He was recently detained for "providing false information and incomplete paperwork" when registering as a sex offender.

Thornton was initially charged in 2020 for solicitation of prostitution from a minor. At the time, he worked at Glasgow Middle School in Fairfax County. Following his arrest, authorities attempted to inform the school via email about the counselor. The attempt was unsuccessful, and Thornton continued working for the school.

The guidance counselor was arrested a second time in June after soliciting prostitution from a minor again. After nearly two years since the first arrest, Thornton was fired earlier this month when the middle school finally learned about his criminal history.

Fairfax County Public Schools came under fire in May when the district released a handbook that stated "malicious misgendering" and "malicious deadnaming" are considered "slurs." The district identified the use of slurs as a "Level 4" offense that could result in a student being suspended for up to five days.