ABOVE: Siegel High School, Murfreesboro, Tennessee (Photo via Rutherford County Schools)
TENNESSEE | A 16-year-old trans male student, a junior at Siegel High School, may find himself being punished for using a bathroom other than a designated single-stall faculty restroom under Tennessee’s new School Facilities Law, which precludes his using a bathroom consistent with his gender identity.
Tobi Yandle found himself in a terrifying situation this past week after discovering that all of the closest faculty restrooms he was allowed to use were locked and he was forced to use a regular boy’s room due to the urgency of his needs. A fact that was substantiated by Siegel High School video footage showing Yandle encountering locked faculty bathrooms, the local Murfreesboro Daily News-Journal reported.
According to published accounts by Yandle and his mother in The Daily News-Journal and Nashville’s WTVF News Channel 5, Sherri Yandle told the media outlets that when her son was forced to use the boys’ room, a group of male students barged in.
“So he ducked into the boys’ room and went into the first stall he saw available. Then he said some boys started chanted trans-phobic slurs, and then it got louder and louder… they started hitting and kicking at the stall door, so Tobi had to use his back to brace it and then put his foot on the toilet to keep the door shut,” Yandle said.
With his heart racing, Yandle texted a friend for help. To protect himself, he jumped up from his seated position and leaned his full body weight against the stall door, an effort to keep it closed.
“When finally somebody came in to clear out the bathroom, the assistant principal (Lorie Gober) found Tobi in the bathroom stall, crying, scared to death,” Sherri Yandle said. “I think the scenario going through Tobi’s head was they were going to physically harm him.”
However, the school officials including Gober took no immediate action telling Yandle’s mother in a phone call that the law was not on her son’s side in the situation.
“She stated because of Governor Lee’s laws that the other students could sue the school if they didn’t like it that a transgender child [was] in the bathroom,” Yandle said.
The law signed by Republican Governor Bill Lee last May 17, requires public schools to provide alternative facilities where transgender student can relieve themselves. Examples of such alternatives would be a single-occupancy restroom or faculty restroom.
The new law doesn’t allow public schools to permit a person access to a restroom or changing facility that is designated to be used by the sex opposite of which that person was born.
Earlier this month The Human Rights Campaign, (HRC) a Washington D.C. based LGBTQ advocacy group filed suit in the U. S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee challenging the Tennessee law.
Angered and frustrated Yandle’s mother filed a complaint the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, which started the process of investigating the harassment complaint. James Evans, a spokesperson for Rutherford County Schools, told the Daily News-Journal that the school district will investigate any allegations of sexual harassment or discrimination under the federal Title IX act.
In a joint media statement the School System and the Sheriff’s Office noted;
Although the school district has not been contacted directly by this parent, an assistant principal at the school has spoken with the student and the student’s mother concerning an alleged incident in the bathroom, although there are some variances in the story.
Rutherford County Schools does have a policy in place that allows students or employees to use private, single-stall bathrooms if needed and requested. The state of Tennessee also has enacted a new law concerning transgender students and bathroom use, and the school district is required to follow this law.
However, the school district will investigate any allegations of sexual harassment or discrimination under the federal Title IX act.
Sherri Yandle said that she believes that the local authorities are hiding behind the new law and that regardless the boys who attacked and bullied her son need to be disciplined.
“They are not supposed to let any child be bullied, and all children are supposed to be safe when they go to school and in that instance, I feel like this school failed,” she said. “I’d like to see these boys held accountable for what they did to my son, regardless of the reason,” she said. “The school system is supposed to have a zero-tolerance for bullying. To me, I just think they’re letting that go.”
