🚨 EXCLUSIVE @FairfaxTimes @DPearlProject “He just stands there and stares,” Megan Smarz's 14-year-old daughter told her, in a call that shocked her to the bone. Megan, 40, spoke with me — courageously, on the record, with her name — to share the phone call she got on Sept. 2 from her daughter. Years ago, Megan had grown up in Fairfax, a Navy brat at Orange Hunt Elementary, with fond memories of childhood. Last year she moved back, never imagining she’d be thrust into a firestorm. On Sept. 2, her 14-yr-old daughter, whom we are pseudonymously calling "Jane," phoned her from West Springfield High School in Fairfax County, Va., Jane shared shocking new: a biological male had walked in as girls undressed. “He just stands there and stares,” her daughter said. When administrators didn't return her phone call, Megan posted a message in a parents’ FB group: “My child just called me from wshs gym cause there was a boy dressed as a boy in the girls locker room while they were changing. Teacher told her they couldn’t do anything about it. Wth is going on.” To put it politely, Megan asked a simple question: What the heck is going on? That post — and the courage behind it — sparked a battle now at the heart of Virginia politics. In the🧵read how the school responded to Megan's plea to protect the right of girls in the locker room and learn how Jane has processed this moment. You'll probably want to give mom and daughter a hug.