(Reduxx) Two female students have been left with injuries after reportedly being assaulted by a trans-identified male student in the women’s restroom at a high school in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Reduxx has obtained a police report related to a violent assault that took place in a women’s washroom at Edmond Memorial High School. The report, dated October 26, reveals that a trans-identified male student was handed a juvenile summons after two female students were left with injuries following a fight he had reportedly initiated with them in the women’s washroom.
On October 26 at approximately 8 a.m., police responded to reports of a fight that had broken out at Memorial High School in the small community of Edmond, Oklahoma. Upon arriving, the officer found a female student with injuries to her face and head at the nurse’s station.
The attending officer noted the female victim had “several red areas” on her face, and that both of her eyes were beginning to swell. The officer conducted an interview with the victim, whose full name was redacted due to her age.
The female student advised the officer that a trans-identified student, indicated by the letter A, had approached her in the women’s washroom while she was speaking to friends. She explained that A had tried to talk to her and she had ignored him, at which point A began to get angry and asked if she “wanted to fight” while approaching her with balled fists.
The victim said that the trans-identified student then hit her in the face, and she indicated in her statement that she was not strong enough to fight back due to the force of the blow.
The transgender student pulled the girl’s hair and forced her to the ground, at which point he began to kick her in the face and punch her repeatedly.
The victim’s friends, who had been in the washroom at the time, witnessed the incident and were pleading with A to stop his assault. One of the other female students attempted to intervene, and was punched twice on the left side of her face by the assailant.
One witness indicated that the girl had tried to step in because A “is a man,” and she felt her friend’s life was at risk.
The female student who intervened is listed as having injuries to her “eye, face, and head with a possible concussion.”
Two other witnesses appeared to corroborate the victim’s story, with one stating that the transgender student struck the victim repeatedly and “knocked her out clean on the floor” without any retaliation from the victim. One of the other witnesses also stated she had wanted to intervene, but is not listed as a victim in the report.
A statement from the transgender student indicates he had initiated conversation with the victim because he was trying to “pay her back” for clothes he had stolen from her. The student also contradicts the victim and witness statements, and provides details that are inconsistent with the girls’ injuries as recorded by police.
The attending officer reported that there was great confusion over A’s gender identity, and had pursued more information from the school administration due to conflicting data on A’s biological sex.
The officer noted that A had been registered as a female student, and that the birth certificate on file with the school had no indicated gender marker. The officer then found a paternity affidavit which indicated that A was male.
The police report indicates that A’s parent arrived to pick her child up. The parent appears to have attempted to blame the victim for the assault, claiming the girl had “made fun” of A for being transgender. The parent also confirmed that A was “born male but identified as female.” The police report utilized feminine pronouns to refer to A.
The trans-identified student was charged with Assault and Battery and Disorderly Conduct, and was handed summons on both counts, details confirmed by Emily Ward, Edmond Police Department’s public information specialist.
Following the incident at the school, the assailant allegedly posted something disturbing to his Snapchat story directed at the female student who had intervened in the fight. While details are not provided on the nature of the post, police approached the girl’s parents and asked if they wanted charges to be pressed. The girl’s parents declined, referring to the charges that were already being pursued.
The transgender student’s parent also reported that the victims had made “cyberbullying posts” directed at her child on social media, and police contacted the families of the girls and requested the posts be taken down in an apparent effort to de-escalate the situation.
Earlier this year, the state of Oklahoma passed into law Senate Bill 615, which required all public schools to have exclusively single-sex facilities, and for students and staff to utilize the washroom in accordance with the biological sex on their birth certificate.
Accommodations were made available in a clause that permitted single-use facilities to be available for those who did not with to use multiple occupancy restrooms.
Susan Parks-Schlepp, Director of Communications for Edmond Public Schools, responded to a request for comment, and confirmed some details of the October 26 incident.
“Administrators at Edmond Memorial High School investigated an injury fight involving two students in a women’s restroom. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that one of the students involved in the fight is transgender and was using the women’s restroom in violation of state law which requires students to use restrooms according to the sex on their birth certificate,” Parks-Schlepp stated.
“Those involved in the fight have received consequences in accordance with both district policy and state law.”
Parks-Schlepp did not provide any insight into how the assault had been able to take place considering the school’s alleged compliance with Senate Bill 615, or provide insight into whether a member of the school’s staff had provided the transgender student with informal permission to use the women’s facilities.
