The Patriot Post® · In Brief: My High School Punished Me...
We’ve decried numerous times the way woke school officials put teenage girls at risk in order to show favoritism to a boy with gender dysphoria. One high school freshman, Blake Allen, took to Fox News to write an op-ed about her experience after objecting to this nonsense.
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.
Allen talked to her mom, who along with other parents discussed the situation with school administrators. It didn’t go well. In fact, Allen says, “they made me the bad guy” and “I was punished” for “harassment and bullying.” She was served with out-of-school suspension as well as being told she must take part in a “restorative justice circle” reeducation camp and write a “reflective essay” on that experience.
She and her family sued, relying on the Alliance Defending Freedom. “On the same day that we filed suit, the superintendent rescinded the disciplinary actions against me.” She concludes:
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 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.