In Arlington County, Virginia, a controversy has erupted over the handling of a convicted sex offender’s access to girls’ locker rooms in public schools and community facilities—an incident that has drawn in school officials, political candidates, and local parents, while exposing deep divisions over gender identity policies and child safety.
At the center of the storm is Richard Kenneth Cox, a Tier III registered sex offender since 1998, who, under the alias “Riki Cox,” identified as a transgender woman and was permitted to use female locker rooms at multiple Arlington County Public Schools (APS) facilities in late 2024. According to 7News and WJLA reporter Nick Minock, Cox’s access was enabled by APS policy, which allows individuals to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity.
The pools and locker rooms in question, located at Washington Liberty High School, Wakefield High School, and Barcroft Sports and Fitness Center, are open to the public outside school hours. Cox also admitted in court records and police body camera footage to using women’s locker rooms at Fairfax County’s Oakmont Rec, Audrey Moore Rec, Franconia Rec Center, and several Planet Fitness locations. The issue came to light after a series of incidents in which Cox allegedly exposed himself and engaged in lewd acts in these facilities, sometimes in the presence of children.
Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request revealed a sympathetic exchange between Cox and Kathleen Clark, then a candidate for the Arlington School Board and now a sitting board member. In an October 28, 2024, email, Cox wrote to Clark, “I am a member of the LGBT and specifically transgender community. The issue is that transgender people including minors are disproportionately homeless and use places like the County swimming pools to shower. But let me be clear that this is not only an opportunity to be clean but to be and feel part of the community. However, solely because of complaints of a transgender person in the locker room, Washington Liberty Swimming Pool made a rule that people using the shower but not the pool must use the single, isolated locker room away from everyone else, like they are some kind of freak or something.”
Clark’s response was supportive. She replied, “As you are referring to policy and signage in the pools, can you please forward the picture to me so I can do some research on it? Was this a recent incident? If so, are county officials aware too?” In a subsequent email, Clark shared her experience in transgender and non-binary competency training and said, “I hope that you did not experience transphobic statements from the staff. You should be able to use the showers and changing rooms that you are most comfortable using.” She also stated that pool staff needed additional training to be more inclusive.
The revelation of this email exchange, reported by The Federalist, Townhall, and 7News, sparked outrage among some parents and community members who questioned whether Clark and APS were aware of Cox’s sex offender status at the time. APS later clarified that Clark was acting as a private citizen and candidate, not as an official representative, during the exchange. The school district insists that as soon as staff became aware of Cox’s status in October 2024, immediate action was taken: “As soon as APS was aware of the presence of a registered sex offender in one of our aquatics centers, we immediately prohibited the offender from being on APS property and notified the Arlington County Police Department and our County partners. At no time did we knowingly admit a sex offender into our aquatics facilities,” an APS spokesperson told 7News. APS has since strengthened security protocols, requiring a 100% ID check against the sex offender database before allowing entry to any APS pool.
Despite these measures, parents remain concerned. One Arlington mother told WJLA that she and her nine-year-old daughter encountered Cox naked in the girls’ locker room after swim lessons at Washington Liberty High School in September 2024. The mother said the facility manager acknowledged that similar incidents had been occurring since the summer, and the only response from the school board was to add signage encouraging locker room etiquette.
Further complicating matters, Cox is currently facing multiple charges in Arlington County, including indecent liberties with children, indecent exposure, child pornography possession, and sex offender proximity violations. In a recent Arlington court hearing, an officer testified that Cox had children’s swim class schedules on his phone, presumably to time his presence in locker rooms before and after these classes. Prosecutors allege that Cox intentionally tracked children in both Arlington and Fairfax counties. However, Fairfax County authorities, including Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, have not charged Cox for similar alleged conduct in their jurisdiction.
The political ramifications have reached the Virginia gubernatorial race. Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger has been repeatedly questioned by The Federalist and others about her stance on whether trans-identifying male sex offenders should be allowed in girls’ locker rooms, as well as whether she condemns the sympathetic correspondence between Cox and Clark. Spanberger’s spokeswoman, Libby Wiet, responded, “Convicted sex offender Richard Cox is a predator who should be in jail—and that’s exactly where he is. Abigail is a parent of three daughters in Virginia public schools and a former federal law enforcement officer who went after child predators—nothing is more important to her than the safety of Virginia’s kids. As Governor, Abigail will work with state and local law enforcement officers to keep Virginia kids safe and make sure sex offenders are prevented from preying on children and are prosecuted for their crimes.”
Yet, when pressed for a direct answer to whether Spanberger would support policies to keep men out of women’s spaces, her campaign did not provide a clear response. This perceived evasiveness has drawn criticism from her Republican opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears, who has stated unequivocally, “Girls are girls, and boys are boys,” and pledged to support policies that maintain the separation of sexes in sports and private areas.
Legal experts and advocacy groups have weighed in as well. Sarah Parshall Perry, Vice President and Legal Fellow at Defending Education, told 7News, “Only in Arlington Public Schools—long beholden to transgender madness—could a registered sex offender expose himself in two different high school locker rooms shared by young girls and shortly thereafter correspond with school board members to complain about the putatively insensitive treatment he received.” Perry lamented the policies that, in her view, enabled the situation and called for greater accountability to protect children.
Meanwhile, APS maintains that it has addressed the situation and is committed to student safety. Superintendent Durán stated in a board meeting that “immediate action was taken to address community concerns” once Cox’s status was known, and APS has since implemented stricter entry protocols at all aquatic facilities.
The case has left Arlington County grappling with the balance between inclusivity for transgender individuals and the imperative to protect children from potential harm. As the debate continues, parents, school officials, and political leaders are being forced to confront difficult questions about where to draw the line—and how to ensure that policies designed to protect one group do not inadvertently put another at risk.
The Cox incident has become a flashpoint in Virginia’s ongoing culture war, one that is likely to shape both local policy and statewide politics for months—if not years—to come.
