School District Reverses Trans Student Bathroom Policy After Death Threats
Pickens County School District in Georgia ended its bathroom policy for trans students after others sent death threats and vandalized the schools
The Pickens County Public Schools district in Georgia reversed its trans-inclusive bathroom policy after angry parents and students threatened the school district with violence. Up until Wednesday, October 2019, students were free to enter the bathroom that aligned with their gender identity, but after dissenters raised “serious safety concerns” the school district changed its policy and reverted back to its old bathroom policy.
The school went on to write in a statement that “there have been death threats, student harassment, and vandalism of school property” from students and parents who were unhappy that the school wanted to honor trans students’ gender identities. We repeat: A bunch of adults lobbied death threats against a school district because they don’t want a trans girl going in the girl’s restroom.
As for the “safety concerns” that a trans-inclusive bathroom policy would bring, the school did not outline what those were. 11 Alive reported that on Monday night, 600 individuals showed up at the school board meeting both protesting and counter-protesting the policy and the protestors outlined the “safety concerns” they were worried about. One mother stated that the bathroom policy would make it harder to tell a young man who is abusing the policy to leave the women’s restroom. One dad told the crowd that “never in my life [would I] use a restroom in which a female is in.” NBC News also reports that many parents raised the popular “but a man will use the girl’s restroom” argument, which makes little sense as there is literally nothing stopping a pedophile from entering a girl’s restroom at any time, regardless of which policy is in place.
Those in favor of the policy remarked that “you should be able to use any restroom that you want to use. This is not about left or right. It’s about equal rights,” while others stated that trans individuals just want to use the bathroom, that’s it.
It seems the trans community is being punished on the offchance a cisgender person abuses the new bathroom policy.
NBC News reports that the district originally implemented the policy to follow the 2018 ruling in Adams v. the School Board, a federal case in the 11th Circuit — which has jurisdiction over Georgia, Florida, and Alabama — that ruled that a Florida school system must allow a teenaged trans boy to use the men’s restroom.
Per the school district, “the District shall return to bathroom procedures in place at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year until it can consult with law enforcement and other safety professionals so that these concerns may be addressed.”
