News

Actions

Family: Alaska girl expelled after she kneed boy in the groin in girls’ bathroom

Posted

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — An Alaska school district is coming under fire for how it handled the discipline for a female student at North Pole High School who kneed a boy in the groin as he blocked her exit from the girls’ bathroom, KTUU reported.

“We had an incident last week to where some boys entered the girls’ bathroom, and a girl kneed a boy, feeling threatened. They were blocking her way. And she was suspended from school, because she used too much force,” Rep. Tammie Wilson, R-Fairbanks, said during a House Majority press conference last week.

According to Wilson, the boys were in the bathroom due to “some kind of protest.”

The Washington Post reported the boys were upset about a selfie snapped in the boys’ bathroom by a student transitioning from female to male. They walked into the girls’ bathroom to take their own selfie “as a [form] of protest,” the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District superintendenttold The Washington Post.

Wilson told KTUU the reason they were there shouldn’t matter.

“If you ever feel threatened, for your safety, whatever force you think you have to go give, I will stand by you and so will your community, and not for those boys who were where they didn’t belong,” Wilson said.

Wilson said the girl was suspended and missed her prom, while the boys were allowed to attend, KTUU reported.

In a tweet, the girl’s sister said that she was actually expelled for what she did.

Superintendent Karen Gaborik would not confirm to The Washington Post whether the girl was expelled.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District released a statement:

“The district does not encourage students or staff to use force against students, staff, or visitors to school facilities. Students or staff who use force against another person on school grounds could be subject to disciplinary action, depending on the facts and circumstances of the incident.”

The district also said multiple students faced disciplinary action, KTUU reported.

Wilson said, “She did the right thing, and we should be backing her, not having her sitting at home wondering whether she made the right decision or not.”

According to The Washington Post, the girl’s family plans to appeal the disciplinary action.