A Loudoun County School Board meeting that started with high security and tight control of public comment ended after more than four hours, with no decision yet on a policy to protect the rights of transgender students.

The board heard testimony on Tuesday evening on the policy that would allow students to be called by their names and gender pronouns, and to participate in activities and use facilities consistent with their gender identity at school. The board voted to recess until Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

The hearing came more than a month after a previous school board meeting in June dissolved into chaos and an arrest, as parents raged over the school district’s gender inclusive policy proposal and approach to teaching systemic racism.

Following the June meeting, the board adopted strict rules for public comment. On Tuesday, members of the public were not allowed in the meeting room unless it was their turn to speak, and speakers were not even able to enter the building until just before their name was called. Some in-person commenters said they were forced to wait outside in a late afternoon thunderstorm.

“These modifications are in direct response to the increase in threats and the unruly and unsafe behavior at the June 22 board meeting,” the board said in a statement prior to the meeting. “Specifically, ongoing security threats require a response that keeps public commenters, staff and School Board Members safe on school property.”

Tuesday’s meeting was tightly controlled, but parents’ deep and angry divisions over transgender rights and the teaching of systemic racism in schools were readily apparent.

Many parents, some of whom testified virtually, spoke in support of the pronouns and names policy and the school district’s steps to root out systemic racism and create a culturally responsive curriculum.

“I hope you know that though you are hearing a lot of hateful noise, you know that doesn’t represent the voices of the majority of LCPS parents,” said Liz Carter, an LCPS parent who was also one of several to bring up concerns about COVID-19 spread during school lunches.

The proposed policy on transgender rights is required by a new Virginia state law, which requires local school boards to have policies in place protecting transgender students by the start of the school year.

High school student Jack Martinez spoke up in favor of the policy, calling on the board to “protect the sanctity of LGBTQ student educations.”

“My legal name is John, but I go by Jack,” he told the Board. “No teacher makes me explain this. But for trans students, it’s an entirely different reality.”

But a significant number of speakers, particularly those who commented in person, offered impassioned and sometimes angry pushback on the transgender rights policy, the emphasis on systemic racism, and mask requirements for the coming school year.

Some teachers said being required to call transgender students by their names and pronouns would infringe on their religious liberty as Christians and their freedom of speech.

Others attacked the morals and motivations of the board members, sometimes directly calling for their resignation.

“You are not our kings or queens. We had a revolution 250 years ago to rid ourselves of this type of tyranny,” said John Tigges, a commenter who said he had been arrested at the June meeting. “We will remove those who continue to act like kings and queens until we restore this community and this commonwealth to the birthplace of freedom.”

Some argued the school system’s insistence on incorporating critical race theory — a now-politicized academic discipline that the school system says is not part of the curriculum — had damaged academic standards and taught white children to hate themselves. Several speakers prayed.

One woman, Laura Morris, who identified herself as a LCPS teacher of five years, said the school system “promotes political ideologies that do not square with who I am as a believer in Christ,” and told board members and the empty auditorium that she was resigning.

“I quit your policies, I quit your trainings, and I quit being a cog in a machine that tells me to push highly politicized agendas on our most vulnerable constituents, the children,” Morris said during her testimony.

Five parents have also filed a lawsuit over a detailed plan to combat systemic racism in Loudoun schools, alleging it infringes on rights to free speech and equality.

“It becomes difficult to even talk about things like equity and diversity, because those two words have been placed by some under the umbrella of critical race theory,” Loudoun County Superintendent Scott Ziegler told DCist/WAMU last month.

The divisions come as the wealthy county, once vastly rural, has grown into a suburb dotted with both farms and data centers. The county has shifted from dominantly Republican to reliably Democratic in recent memory.

Non-white students, who now comprise more than half of the population at LCPS, have reported harassment and discrimination for decades. During the first week of virtual learning, multiple students used racist slurs or showed sexual images on screen.

After the final speaker, 4 hours and 22 minutes into the board meeting, Ziegler said that in order to allow the public in to watch the business portion of the meeting, which was slated to include a vote on the transgender rights policy, staff would need another hour and a half to rearrange the meeting room and re-screen members of the public.

Board Chair Brenda Sheridan suggested recessing the meeting, given the late hour, and the audience that had dwindled during heavy thunderstorms. “My personal opinion at this time is we had so many speakers in the end that were no longer here that we don’t really have a viewing audience this evening, and it would be best to come back tomorrow,” Sheridan said.