A student identifying as transgender who was caught twice on video in the last few weeks allegedly assaulting girls at a California high school will not be returning to the school, according to the Riverside Unified School District.
Three girls, who are all minors and were suspended from school for their involvement in the altercations, told the board that the boy, who is also a minor according to police, had harassed them.
The mother of one of the girls who spoke out of turn when her daughter was testifying blasted the board for not listening to her, and warned the board that if the boy showed up at school again there would be a problem.
“You’re not going to tell me I can’t speak when they jumped on my kid,“ she said. ”There’s no way they’re going to go to school on Monday and get jumped on again. I can guarantee you that.”
The student is a male but identifies as a female and has been using the girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms. Under California law, schools must allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms and participate in sports teams and activities that align with their chosen gender identities. The law, Assembly Bill 1266, was enacted in 2014.
The boy has also been accused on social media of showing female students his genitals and spitting at them, in addition to the harassment allegations.
He was not arrested nor charged in the alleged misdemeanor assaults, according to the Riverside Police Department.
Ryan Railsback, a police spokesman, told The Epoch Times investigations are ongoing and that any charges for alleged misdemeanor assaults would hinge on the willingness of victims or their parents to press charges.
“None of the people involved have said, ‘Yes, I want the other person arrested,’” he said.
Felony assault-and-battery cases which result in severe injury don’t require the consent of the alleged victim for an arrest to be made, Railsback said.
“Felonies are different,” he said. “We can arrest for a felony.”
Rumors the boy wasn’t charged because he identifies as transgender are untrue, said Railsback.
Parents, Students React
At the board meeting, several parents and students blasted trustees for ignoring prior complaints about the boy, saying he should have been expelled weeks ago.Megan Simpkins, an 18-year-old high school student, complained about the school allowing the boy to use the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms.
“Why are we affirming the mental confusion of this boy and putting the safety of women in jeopardy by allowing mentally confused men to use the women’s spaces?” she said. “What about the women? What about the true girls like myself who are female down to our DNA? Why don’t we ever get a say in whether or not we are comfortable with this? The truth is we aren’t. The majority of us aren’t, and yet nothing has been done to protect the safety of these women.”
Lori Lopez, a parent, told trustees the district should have acted sooner to protect students, claiming the boy had been involved in three to four altercations with girls.
“As a mom, I want to know what specific measures are being put in place to assure safety,” she said. “When is enough, enough. You had ... staff thrown to the ground, tackling somebody putting their body physically in the way to protect a female student. It’s just—it’s mindboggling.”
Lopez said she refuses to accept that the state is 100 percent to blame for the situation and that the local school district shares some responsibility for the situation.
She also said she was criticized for speaking on the issue at the last meeting.
“I was referred to as transphobic and accused of misgendering the student,” she said.
“I would like to say that because you and I disagree on ideology,” she told the board, “it does not make me transphobic because I speak up on behalf of girls. This is just misguided. And I’m going to tell you that I’ve had enough of this. There’s no reason that my 14-year-old daughter has less rights today than I had when I was a child.”
Mariah Borquez told the board her daughter was one of the girls who was bullied by the boy.
“I feel like Martin Luther King staff failed to do that to keep our girls safe,” she said. “I don’t believe that a male identifying as a female should be allowed in the women’s restroom or the locker room. If you have male body parts, you’re still considered as a male no matter what mentally you’re thinking.”
She warned trustees they'll be held accountable if they failed to take action to prevent violence at school, and serious injuries or deaths occurred.
“I just feel like you guys need to step up your game and add more security and do things the right way, and like they say, male is a male and female is a female, we should all be in our own spaces. Thank you.”
Sal Flores, the father of two girls who attend the school, said the boy threw a hydro-flask at his daughter, and she was eventually hit with an ice pack in the face.
The boy was given three hours of after-school detention, he said.
Most parents have an expectation that when a student assaults another student with an object that there would be “suspension, possible expulsion, and even law enforcement involvement,” but Flores said his daughter wouldn’t press charges because she feared retaliation.
“I’m very dismayed by this—very dismayed,” he said. “The buck stops with you guys. So please, take care of this before it becomes an issue not just with this student, but in the future with others.”
Melissa Centuri said her son once made a comment to a girl who was using the boys’ bathroom at school and later that same day was assaulted by three students, one who identifies as transgender. She said her son was suspended for three days.
“I’m here also for the same issue of safety, not just for our female students but also our male students. We’re having the same issue as far as boys’ bathrooms with females entering the boys’ bathroom,” she said.
The students who assaulted her son were not suspended, Centuri said, until she arranged a meeting with the school’s vice principal and got her son’s suspension reversed.
“Discipline should be equal for all,” she said.
Sandy R., another parent, told the board that after the first video surfaced about a month ago, parents complained about the boy.
“We didn’t have your attention at that meeting,“ she said. ”Your student board member who is conveniently not here tonight, went on [for] three minutes defending him how he was the victim, not the aggressor. And, of course, she’s not here to defend those statements.”
These types of incidents are happening on all campuses in the district and nothing is being done about it, she said.
“When you don’t discipline children, you send them a message that there’s no consequences for their actions,” she said.
Board Responds to Outrage
At the behest of School Board President Angelo Farooq, Superintendent Renee Hill read a statement issued by the district earlier in the day:“A video depicting an altercation involving students at Martin Luther King High School has been widely circulated on social media this week. This matter has had the full attention of the Riverside Unified School district administration, and is being addressed expeditiously.
“Since the incident occurred, district staff have been working to ensure the safety and rights of all students. Our concerns are considered and promptly responded to, we are able to verify that the student involved will no longer be attending King High School.
“We encourage those who have taken interest in this story, to respect the confidential nature of our specific discussions with those involved and the efforts we will continue to make to ensure we provide an appropriate learning environment for each student as required by law.”
Trustee Tom Hunt called for more security on campuses and said that after meeting with school counselors recently, he’s not surprised to hear there is conflict in schools over “gender identification.”
The caseloads of counselors have doubled since the COVID-19 lockdowns, and counselors are concerned with the mental health of students who “lost those two years of socialization,” he said.
Hunt blamed state lawmakers for the breakdown in discipline in schools, urging parents to contact their state senators and assembly members.
“They’re the ones making the laws,” he said. “School districts are not legislative bodies.”
The bill—introduced by state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and signed into law by California Gov. Newsom in 2019—banned such suspensions in grades TK-5 and prohibited them in grades 6-8 until 2025.
SB 274—newly proposed legislation also authored by Skinner—would abolish willful defiance suspensions completely in all grades.
School districts in Oakland and San Francisco already ban willful defiance suspensions.
Hunt said SB 274 would “further dilute the ability of a teacher to manage their classroom” and discipline unruly students. He suggested the board “do more” to inform parents and district employees about state legislation and how it’s impacting schools. He recommended sending a lobbyist to Sacramento to represent local interests.
Hunt claimed teachers have complained to him that the state has usurped their authority to discipline students and manage their classrooms, but that the California Teachers Association (CTA) has not pushed back against such state policies, Hunt said.
“We need to stand up if CTA isn’t,” he said.
Trustee Noemi Hernandez Alexander told parents and students she would advocate for more security on campus.
“We hear you. We see you. We understand,” she told parents and students. “Your concerns are not falling on deaf ears. We assure you.”
Alexander also called for “a conversation beyond that” to discuss “creative solutions” and engage parents and find solutions.
The board, she said, is bound by “legal parameters that tie our hands.”
Town Hall Proposed
Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Corona) sent letters to Alexander and Hunt on May 1 calling for a yet-to-be-scheduled joint town hall with the community and board members to discuss solutions and proposed legislation to address safety concerns raised by parents.
‘No Reason to Fight’
Meanwhile, Riverside police officer Railsback, who was a student resource officer, or SRO, for more than a decade, and works in juvenile intervention programs, said when it comes to fights, it doesn’t matter who starts it, but how students react.“If you have an opportunity to walk away and avoid the fight, kids need to do that. They’re not being taught that,” he said. “I saw the videos. All the parties were actively participating in it.”
Self-defense doesn’t mean a victim can legally use excessive force and “keep punching on” an attacker. The victim can fight back but should only use as much force as necessary to stop the attack or to create an opportunity to escape the situation, he said.
While the state lawmakers have softened penalties for some violent crimes in the adult criminal justice system, they’ve also lessened the penalties for minors, he said.
“But what people aren’t paying attention to is these changes in laws that have been made towards juveniles. It’s harder to put a kid in juvenile hall for anything. Some of these laws have changed for kids as well, and the education code has changed the state,” he said. “We’re not pointing fingers. We’re just saying the laws have changed everywhere.”
Railsback also said he has witnessed a surge in aggressive behavior among youth since the pandemic lockdowns.
“I don’t have numbers, but I can tell you we’ve seen an increase in kids fighting,” he said. “Whether it’s on campus, after school, or on the weekend, we’ve seen more incidences where kids are making these horrible choices.”
However, because of student privacy laws, school boards and staff often can’t tell parents how or if another student has been disciplined.
“It’s hard to tell parents that something’s being done without saying there’s something being done,” he said.
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