Originally published July 3, 2023 6:00 pm PDT
The school reportedly does not have a written policy for gender-specific versus gender-neutral bathroom usage.
QUICK FACTS:
- An unnamed teenager under the age of 16 has been arrested after four “serious sexual assault” allegations.
- Three of the four assaults occurred in so-called “gender-neutral” bathrooms.
- The incidents are believed to have taken place at a school in Essex, where there are both gender-specific and gender-neutral bathrooms available.
- The alleged attacks occurred as the United Kingdom’s Department of Education is preparing to release transgender guidance for schools.
- “Due to the ongoing police investigation, the school is unable to comment on specifics around what they are doing in response to the allegations,” according to an Essex County Council spokesperson. “However, the school takes all allegations extremely seriously and will always review policies and safeguarding procedures following safeguarding matters such as this.”
- The assault allegations have led to people questioning the school’s safety policies, with the founder of Transgender Trend Stephanie Davies-Arai saying, “Gender neutral means mixed sex and that immediately means that you are not able to safeguard girls.”
- Davies-Arai called for a “preventative strategy” for bathroom assault risks, adding that current school policies are the “opposite of preventative.”
PARLIAMENT LEADERS RESPOND:
- Former teacher and Tory MP Miriam Cates called gender-neutral bathrooms a “threat to the safety of women and girls.”
- Cates stated that she hopes the education guidance will “make clear that gender-neutral facilities are a safeguarding risk and should not be allowed in schools.”
- Member of Parliament Nick Fletcher voiced that gender-specific bathrooms need to be protected, asking, “Why are we creating an issue that we do not need to create? That is what we are doing by placing boys in girls’ changing rooms and toilets and vice versa.”
- Fletcher argued that gender-neutral policies are “actually increasing” risks for schoolgirls.
- “Our job is supposed to be to take away risk, but these policies are actually increasing it,” he stated. “That isn’t to say that all boys or men are a threat, but we should prevent the possibility of something bad happening.”
BACKGROUND:
- American Faith reported that an Oklahoma mom filed a lawsuit against a school district after her daughter was allegedly beaten by a transgender student.
- According to the document, the female student received “severe physical and mental injuries, severe physical and mental pain and suffering, and severe emotional distress” as a result of the alleged attack.
- The incident occurred in the girls’ bathroom.
- The lawsuit asserts that the attacker violated a state law requiring transgender individuals to use a “single-occupancy restroom or changing room” if they do not use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex.
