Girls Volleyball Team Banned From Their Own Locker Room Over Complaint About Transgender Student

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Virginia Kruta - The Daily Wire


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A Vermont high school is cracking down after female students complained about a transgender student in their locker room — and the school’s solution is to ban the girls from their own locker room.

According to a report from local CBS News outlet WCAX, the controversy arose when a transgender teammate allegedly made remarks that made some of the others on the team uncomfortable.

The school informed parents via email that officials were investigating claims that the girls on the team had harassed their transgender teammate. But in the interim, the transgender student is still allowed full use of the locker room while the others have been relegated to a single-stall bathroom to change one at a time.
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“It’s a huge thing. Everyone’s asking, ‘So, why aren’t you allowed in the locker room?'” Blake Allen, a member of the volleyball team, told reporters. “My mom wants me to do this interview to try to make a change. I feel like for stating my opinion — that I don’t want a biological man changing with me — that I should not have harassment charges or bullying charges. They should all be dropped.”

Allen went on to note that none of the girls on the team had taken issue with playing alongside the transgender student — or even with that student or others who are still biologically male using the female restrooms. Their sole issue was in sharing a locker room, where often they were all changing clothes together.

“There are biological boys that go into the girl’s bathroom but never a locker room,” Allen explained. She also said that the school’s temporary fix — having all of the girls use one single-stalled restroom while the transgender student had access to the locker room — made no sense to her.

“They want all the girls who feel uncomfortable — so pretty much 10 girls — to get changed in a single stall bathroom, which would take over 30 minutes. Where if one person got changed separately, it would take a minute, like no extra time,” Allen explained, arguing that it made much more sense for the one transgender student to change in the bathroom.

According to the Vermont Agency of Education, transgender students should not be forced to use the bathroom or locker room that does not conform to their gender identity.

“The use of restrooms and locker rooms by transgender students requires schools to consider numerous factors …” The AoE policy reads, but it later adds, “A transgender student should not be required to use a locker room or restroom that conflicts with the student’s gender identity.”

[DemonGeminiX]

I'm sorry to have to say this, but it's time to go to another school, ladies.

[DemonGeminiX]

Maybe even in another state.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

jesus

[Teh One Who Knocks]

It makes PERFECT sense to give the trans student the right to use the locker room while banning all the transphobic bigots [-(

[Teh One Who Knocks]

NICOLE SILVERIO, MEDIA REPORTER - The Daily Caller


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A local news outlet in Vermont removed a story they broke about the controversy surrounding a high school girls volley team opposing a transgender athlete being in the locker room.

The outlet, WCAX-TV, first reported on the controversy circulating around the volleyball team at Randolph Union High School in Randolph, Vermont, in late September. The school, complying with state law, allowed a 14-year-old transgender student to change in a locker room with girls, a rule that has made many on the team feel uneasy.

Days later, the outlet quietly removed their reporting and the coverage currently reads, “404/Not Found.” WCAX News Director Roger Garrity told local Vermont outlet Seven Days that they removed it quietly to avoid any more controversy.

“We didn’t announce it then for fear it might further inflame the situation,” Garrity told the outlet. “We are now working with LGBTQ advocates on a message to the community acknowledging the harm that was caused.”

The outlet interviewed one of the athletes, Blake Allen, who expressed her discomfort with having to change in front of a “biological man” in the locker room. “They want all the girls who feel uncomfortable to get changed in a single-stall bathroom, which would take over 30 minutes,” Allen told WCAX in an interview. “Where, if one person got changed separately, it would take a minute, like no extra time.”

Allen was far from alone, as several girls on the team objected to changing in the presence of the transgender student, ABC 4 News reported. In early October, the school banned the team from changing in the room and opened an investigation into allegations that the girls harassed the student, according to the New York Post.
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Allen said that the school has turned down all complaints made by students and parents due to state law that allows transgender students to play on sports teams and use facilities that align with their gender identity, ABC 4 News reported.

“My mom wants me to do this interview to try to make a change,” Allen told WCAX, according to ABC 4 News. “I feel like stating my opinion…that I don’t want a biological man changing with me…that I should not have harassment charges or bullying charges. They should all be dropped.”

Parents and students immediately expressed their discomfort and opposition to the situation. One 14-year-old team member told the Daily Signal that the transgender student made the girls feel uncomfortable as the student reportedly sat in the back of the locker room and watched them change. She asked the student not to come in, but the transgender student allegedly told her it was fine and stood in the corner watching, which made her feel highly uncomfortable.

“He was born a boy,” an anonymous female student said. “I don’t care if he’s on my team, he can join any team, I don’t care. But when I’m undressing and there’s a male in the girls locker room or in the bathroom with me, I feel very uncomfortable.”

Another team mate also informed the transgender student that the girls needed their privacy, the Daily Signal reported. The teammates addressed their discomfort with school officials, but were told the school had to comply with state law.

One teammate said someone in a math class showed the transgender student the news surrounding the girls’ discomfort, leading the student to allegedly say “I’m going to f—ing kill someone,” the Daily Signal reported. The student then outwardly expressed hatred for one of the female students.

After the locker room had been closed, Orange Southwest School District superintendent Layne Millington announced that the school website had been hacked and covered in “hate speech, symbols, and photographs targeting transgender individuals,” the Daily Signal reported.

The superintendent then said people needs to recognize that LGBTQ people “want to belong” and that transgender people are “not predators.”

WCAX-TV did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment as to the reason the story was deleted.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

:facepalm:

[Teh One Who Knocks]

https://i.imgur.com/hiwjRUq.gif

[Teh One Who Knocks]

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As a girl, I was taught to respect the privacy of my body, and to speak up if I felt unsafe or if something made me feel uncomfortable. Now I’m 14 and shocked to learn not all adults take you seriously when you say you don’t feel safe or comfortable. In fact, they may even punish you for speaking out.

That’s what happened to me when I said I didn’t think a teenage male should be allowed in the girls’ locker room where my teammates and I undress and change. I’m a private person when it comes to my body, even in the safety and comfort of home. But at school, apparently there’s no problem with a male student freely watching us girls change our clothes.

It was a conversation I had with some peers in French class that landed me in trouble with the officials at Randolph Union High School in Vermont. Someone overheard me telling my friends that a dude doesn’t belong in the girls’ locker room, and they reported me to the co-principals, even though the male student didn’t hear me and wasn’t in the class.

The controversy didn’t start in French class, though; it started when the school allowed a male who identifies as a girl to compete on our girls’ volleyball team. When the male student entered our locker room, we were changing. Some of us didn’t have a shirt on; others of us were only in our underwear. Naturally, some of us were uncomfortable and asked the student to leave, but we were ignored.

I was upset after the incident and called my mom to tell her about it. She and several other parents called the school administrators to express concerns about the male student being in the girls’ locker room. Not only did school officials make no attempt to provide us with any support or a workable solution, they made me the bad guy for saying that a teenage male shouldn’t be allowed to watch us girls undress.

Shouldn’t every girl be taught to speak out to protect herself from situations where she hasn’t given consent — and be listened to by those in a position to help? If something feels off, trust your gut? Not at my high school. If you don’t comply with the school’s preferred gender identity policy, you’re the bad guy. For expressing true, commonsense, biological facts — boys and girls are different and must respect each other’s bodily privacy — I was punished.

The school began an investigation into the comments I made in class and banned our entire girls’ volleyball team from using the girls’ locker room. The co-principals notified me that I was found guilty of harassment and bullying of "a student on the basis of the targeted student’s gender identity." As punishment, school officials told me I must take part in a "restorative justice circle" with the equity coordinator, submit a "reflective essay," and serve out-of-school suspension.

So, with the legal assistance of Alliance Defending Freedom, I sued the co-principals and Orange Southwest School District officials. On the same day that we filed suit, the superintendent rescinded the disciplinary actions against me.

But I wasn’t the only one to experience retaliation for stating a simple truth and wanting to be safe. My dad, Travis, was suspended from his coaching job for standing up for me. He expressed his views on a Facebook post, calling out the injustice of the male student being allowed to use our locker room and watch my teammates and I undress: "He got a free show, they got violated," my dad wrote. And he was suspended from his position as the middle school girls’ soccer coach. So, my dad joined the lawsuit challenging the school’s unjust retaliation against us for speaking freely — for speaking truth.

Instead of sticking up for the safety and privacy of girls, the school administrators are sticking to their preferred view of gender identity and will unfairly target anyone who dares to think differently. The school must respect my dad’s and my free speech rights to express a commonsense view that this student is male and shouldn’t be allowed in the girls’ locker room.

It’s school officials’ job to ensure every student feels safe at school. And it’s their job to listen to and respect our views, not silence us for speaking out to defend ourselves.

[deebakes]

i would have identified as female in high school if it meant i got to see my classmates naked :lol: