Female students assaulted by transgender students in bathroom

[Josh]

I see Ken and Szdfan are still in denial about these facts:

1. A boy who wore women’s clothes sexually assaulted another student in the girls’ restroom.

1A. Ken/Szdfan are arguing he wasn’t a “real” transsexual, despite wearing women’s clothes and going into the women’s restroom.

2. The Washington Post is trying to slander the girl’s character by claiming she was a promiscuous person.

3. The girl’s dad could not get any justice in the case until the right wing press reported on it. Instead, the girl’s dad got arrested and was portrayed as a terrorist by the left wing news media and an example of why parents should be arrested who attend school board meetings.

[steve-in-kville]

The last male to female transgender student I had in class last year dressed exactly the same, in jeans, hoodies, and sneakers. I don't think I ever once saw her wearing anything else. As I recall, she did have a "Hello Kitty" backpack and somewhat longer hair than the average guy. But that was about it.

How did you know they were trans? Or was it that obvious?

[Joy]

A "male to female transgender" is still a male.

[steve-in-kville]

A "male to female transgender" is still a male.

But if they are sporting a female hairstyle and wearing makeup, how would one know? Reason I ask, I once had a female co-worker that I thought was a guy... until I saw her walk out of the ladies room. I later learned she was pretty open about being a lesbian.

[Ken]

The last male to female transgender student I had in class last year dressed exactly the same, in jeans, hoodies, and sneakers. I don't think I ever once saw her wearing anything else. As I recall, she did have a "Hello Kitty" backpack and somewhat longer hair than the average guy. But that was about it.

How did you know they were trans? Or was it that obvious?

Yes it is obvious and you also get a file of accommodations and information about the child. Which is frankly completely ordinary. Out of 150 students I have in a typical semester I usually have 20+ who have files of information and accommodations. Everything from documented learning disabilities, medical issues, behavioral issues, etc. etc. For example, at the moment I have one student with a disability who is authorized to use the school elevators as an accommodation while other students are not. I have various students with assorted learning issues that have various accommodations such as "preferential seating in front of the class" "extra time on tests" etc. I have students with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and other more uncommon conditions that all have authorizations for using certain medications in class and procedures to follow if they have episodes in class. I have one student with some sort of urinary tract issue who is authorized to leave the classroom to go to the bathroom at any time without permission. I have students on the autism spectrum who have special files and instructions. And when I get the rare transgender student (and they are rare) I get a file listing any accommodations that might accompany that particular child which is usually names, pronouns, and issues like bathroom use. The student I had last year actually had permission to use a staff bathroom rather than either the boys or girls. So had to request a key from me. It really isn't that big of a deal. All of this is carefully documented for every child who has any kind of school accommodations. Every teacher has stacks of these. I usually make a big spread sheet to keep track of it all at the beginning of every year until I eventually have it all memorized for every student.

Students do not ever get to decide for themselves what sort of "accommodations" they are entitled to, whether they are transgender or not. These are negotiated and agreed to in meetings between school administration, parents, counselors, etc. and put down on paper (legal documents) which all the parties involved actually sign and then copies are distributed to teachers and staff. A student can no more decide for themselves that they are entitled to some bathroom accommodation than they can decide for themselves that they are entitled to say extra time on tests or use some prescription medication in school.

[steve-in-kville]

Thank you for that explanation, Ken. My SIL taught elementary school for many years and I've heard about such accommodations.

[Heirbyadoption]

Out of 150 students I have in a typical semester I usually have 20+ who have files of information and accommodations. Everything from documented learning disabilities, medical issues, behavioral issues, etc. etc. For example, at the moment I have one student with a disability who is authorized to use the school elevators as an accommodation while other students are not. I have various students with assorted learning issues that have various accommodations such as "preferential seating in front of the class" "extra time on tests" etc. I have students with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and other more uncommon conditions that all have authorizations for using certain medications in class and procedures to follow if they have episodes in class. I have one student with some sort of urinary tract issue who is authorized to leave the classroom to go to the bathroom at any time without permission. I have students on the autism spectrum who have special files and instructions. And when I get the rare transgender student (and they are rare) I get a file listing any accommodations that might accompany that particular child which is usually names, pronouns, and issues like bathroom use. The student I had last year actually had permission to use a staff bathroom rather than either the boys or girls. So had to request a key from me. It really isn't that big of a deal. All of this is carefully documented for every child who has any kind of school accommodations. Every teacher has stacks of these. I usually make a big spread sheet to keep track of it all at the beginning of every year until I eventually have it all memorized for every student.

Students do not ever get to decide for themselves what sort of "accommodations" they are entitled to, whether they are transgender or not. These are negotiated and agreed to in meetings between school administration, parents, counselors, etc. and put down on paper (legal documents) which all the parties involved actually sign and then copies are distributed to teachers and staff. A student can no more decide for themselves that they are entitled to some bathroom accommodation than they can decide for themselves that they are entitled to say extra time on tests or use some prescription medication in school.

Ken, just as an observation here and I don't mean to derail the conversation, but it really DOES seem a bit noteworthy that out of the 8 specific situations you mentioned as being granted accommodations, only 7 of them are unquestionably involuntary conditions. I realize there is much debate about the physiology of gender identity, but frankly, the choice to actively live/present as transsexual (regardless of the moral question) and require specific accommodations really seems to be apples to oranges with the other 7...

[Ken]

Out of 150 students I have in a typical semester I usually have 20+ who have files of information and accommodations. Everything from documented learning disabilities, medical issues, behavioral issues, etc. etc. For example, at the moment I have one student with a disability who is authorized to use the school elevators as an accommodation while other students are not. I have various students with assorted learning issues that have various accommodations such as "preferential seating in front of the class" "extra time on tests" etc. I have students with asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and other more uncommon conditions that all have authorizations for using certain medications in class and procedures to follow if they have episodes in class. I have one student with some sort of urinary tract issue who is authorized to leave the classroom to go to the bathroom at any time without permission. I have students on the autism spectrum who have special files and instructions. And when I get the rare transgender student (and they are rare) I get a file listing any accommodations that might accompany that particular child which is usually names, pronouns, and issues like bathroom use. The student I had last year actually had permission to use a staff bathroom rather than either the boys or girls. So had to request a key from me. It really isn't that big of a deal. All of this is carefully documented for every child who has any kind of school accommodations. Every teacher has stacks of these. I usually make a big spread sheet to keep track of it all at the beginning of every year until I eventually have it all memorized for every student.

Students do not ever get to decide for themselves what sort of "accommodations" they are entitled to, whether they are transgender or not. These are negotiated and agreed to in meetings between school administration, parents, counselors, etc. and put down on paper (legal documents) which all the parties involved actually sign and then copies are distributed to teachers and staff. A student can no more decide for themselves that they are entitled to some bathroom accommodation than they can decide for themselves that they are entitled to say extra time on tests or use some prescription medication in school.

Ken, just as an observation here and I don't mean to derail the conversation, but it really DOES seem a bit noteworthy that out of the 8 specific situations you mentioned as being granted accommodations, only 7 of them are unquestionably involuntary conditions. I realize there is much debate about the physiology of gender identity, but frankly, the choice to actively live/present as transsexual (regardless of the moral question) and require specific accommodations really seems to be apples to oranges with the other 7...

You are free to make that argument or observation. I completely understand the point you are making. However that is completely irrelevant to my job as a teacher. There are various laws and school policies that authorize different accommodations for different students. They are agreed to through a formal administrative process involving the school administration, counselors, parents, and students. And I am obligated by law to follow them. It isn’t my call to decide that a particular student doesn’t need a particular accommodation. I frankly have lots of students who don’t really need the accommodations that are in their files. For example, I have HS students who might have gotten tested for ADHD when they were in 2nd grade and their file of accommodations still follows them 10 years later despite the fact that they don’t appear to actually need any of them anymore. It isn’t my job to pick and choose which accommodations I want to follow and which I want to ignore. That is above my pay grade.

[steve-in-kville]

Kinda like a years ago my employer had issues with employees parking in the handy cap spots so if they're running late they could still punch in on time. HR had to toe a very fine line on handling it.

Turns out eh majority of them weren't even issued the permit. It belonged to an older family member who no longer drove or had died.

[ohio jones]

All of this is carefully documented for every child who has any kind of school accommodations. Every teacher has stacks of these. I usually make a big spread sheet to keep track of it all at the beginning of every year until I eventually have it all memorized for every student.

Maybe kids these days have more problems than they used to, or maybe parents are more helicoptery, but it seems like the pendulum is swinging toward a bureaucracy catering to snowflakes. Not that the opposite extreme is better; my grandfather couldn't even get an accommodation to write with his left hand.