“Gender Fluid” Boy Assaults Girl in Girls’ Decatur School Bathroom

Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, November 9, 2018 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Four days ago, we elected 180 representatives and 56 senators to a two-year term in the Georgia General Assembly.  Those who served before know which hot-button issues they’ll face, but all of them need to know about emerging problems.

Today’s issue surfaced two years ago in July, when Decatur City Schools’ superintendent, arbitrarily and without notice, emailed his staff a new transgender policy to be established in all nine Decatur City Schools.  His email provided bold and strict directions that drastically changed intimate privacy standards in Decatur schools.  This is part of what he said:

“For purpose of these examples, assume this student was assigned the sex of male at birth, and now identifies as female.  This student should be treated the same as any other female student; she should not be identified as anything other than female; she should be addressed with female pronouns; she should be allowed to use the female restroom; she should be allowed to use the female locker room; she should be allowed to try out for ‘female’ sports; and she should be allowed to room with other females on field trips.”

Parents weren’t consulted or notified about the change, but learned on Facebook six months later that transgender rights would take precedence over other students’ right to privacy in Decatur schools.  Despite parental objections, the superintendent had the audacity to double-down on his policy two weeks after President Trump’s rescission of the guidelines Decatur’s school superintendent had implemented in Decatur schools.

After many complaints, plus a school board hearing for pro and con testimony, the policy was allowed to stand.  Then, in November 2017 a “gender fluid” boy assaulted a five-year-old girl in the girls’ restroom at Oakhurst Elementary School.  The next morning, the girl’s mother complained to the school, but the transgender policy never changed; the “gender fluid” boy still used the same restroom as the assaulted girl; the district refused to put either child in another classroom; and the mother transferred her assaulted daughter to another school.

Because Decatur City Schools receive federal funding, on May 22, 2018 Alliance Defending Freedom Attorney Vernadette Broyles filed a 16-page federal civil rights complaint under the Federal Title IX law.  In September the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights responded by opening a Title IX investigation, which is on-going.

Our new legislators need to pass laws to restore parental rights. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.