WASHINGTON — A group of Culpeper County parents plans to protest publicly Wednesday after their children received yearlong suspensions that they claim are excessive and unfair.

A dozen Culpeper County High School student-athletes were given the 364-day suspensions for alleged locker room misconduct that the school system has classified as sexual assault, parents say.

Nobody has been criminally charged.

“We’re going into a lengthy appeal process,” said Larry Boido, the father of a freshman who was suspended.

“We’re looking at this as quite an injustice right now,” he said. “We kind of feel betrayed by the school system.”

The protesters issued a statement in which they downplay the locker-room activities, calling them “shenanigans.”

“There have been a lot of characterizations that we feel are not accurate,” the statement reads. “It’s our understanding that there was horseplay and roughhousing that occurred in multiple locker rooms.”

Boido, among other parents and members of the community upset over the 12 suspensions, obtained a permit to stage a protest outside the school system’s administration building Wednesday afternoon.

A representative of the school district sent WTOP a brief statement, only reading, “We cannot comment on this matter.”