Transgender students at North Pole High School in Alaska have a lot of choice, the choice of using the boy’s bathroom, the girl’s bathroom or a gender neutral bathroom.
Female students who feel threatened by male students do not.
It all began on the morning of April 4, after a group of boys hatched a plan to protest a Snap Chat selfie photo of a student transitioning from female to male taken in the boy’s bathroom at the high school and made public.
Incensed that the photo had been made public, a group of seven boys decided to “storm” the girl’s bathroom to take a selfie of their own.
A female student present in the bathroom, feeling threatened when the gang of boys tried to enter the bathroom, defended herself with a knee to the groin of the first boy who attempted to enter.
The female student was expelled from school.
After an investigation by school administrators, they found the female student used unacceptable force (the male student sought medical attention for the kneel to the groin) and deemed it violence rather than self-defense:
…is not acceptable to resolve conflict and doesn’t advocate violence as a means for a student to attain safety.
It should be noted that the seven boys were punished (obviously not with school suspension or we would have heard about it), however, due to school privacy policies, their punishment remains unknown.
Although a school spokesperson said:
The male students were disciplined for attempting to enter the restroom,” […] There was not evidence that the male students were threatening any student or using any type of force toward other students.
The reaction to the incident and the punishment the female student made its way across social media:
Feeling threatened? What comes first self-defense or ‘do you intend to assault me?’
On Friday April 5, Alaska Representative Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole entered the conversation at a press conference not connected to the incident.
At the press conference Rep. Wilson made it clear that girls have the right to protect themselves.
If you ever feel threatened for your safety, whatever force you think you have to give, I will stand behind you. And so will your community. Not for those boys who were where they didn’t belong. Was she supposed to not protect herself? She was where she belonged. They were not.”
Here’s what’s amazing in regards to the entire incident.
A transgender student has the right to select which ever school bathroom fits their self-identification. A gang of protesting male students forcing their way into a female bathroom should be asked questions with the assumption they mean no harm. A female student, feeling threatened by a gang of male students “storming” the female bathroom should ask questions before defending herself.
All happening in the mixed-up, crazy world that we call ‘public education.”
The parents of the female student are appearing the school’s decision.
