This scandal was brewing in my Northern Virginia back yard. I was remiss in not raising it earlier.
On May 28 a male student wearing a skirt entered a girl’s bathroom (he “identified as female, you see, so he was within his rights due to a new trans-catering bathroom policy) at a school in Loudoun County, Virginia and raped a freshman girl. Yesterday’s Open Forum marked its first appearance on Ethics Alarms, as Humble Talent linked to his entry on “Humble Musings,” his (excellent) substack site,where he wrote in part,
“This story broke as a result of the father of the victim, Steve Smith, being arrested when he rose to express anger and concern over the policies of the Loudoun County School Board. Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler has just said [in answer to school board member Beth Barts asking if there were sexual assaults in the bathrooms regularly] that “To my knowledge, we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms.” Smith, perhaps understandably, was upset by this, which led to an outburst that quickly became heated, and Smith was arrested and removed from the building.”
Shortly thereafter, the request was made by an activist organization, the National School Board Association ,to the Biden Administration regarding parental outrage at the conduct of school administrators placing school board members in peril, and indeed raising the specter of domestic terrorism. Merrick Garland’s chilling memo, much discussed on the Hill last week, followed. A coincidence, we have been assured.
It would be simplest if you read Humble’s post linked above: my efforts to quote from it have been foiled by WordPress’s horrible block-quote systems which make quotes within quotes a nightmare. But because of the investigative work of D.C. TV station WTOP, we now know that Ziegler, Barts and every other member of the board were aware of the May assault in a high school bathroom thanks to Ziegler’s own email posted above. Now Ziegler and the school board members are sending out statements that attempt to show no deception was intended. Indications are, however, that Ziegler and the entire board wanted the May assault to disappear, especially after the male student involved was transferred to another school and allegedly assaulted someone else. Steve Smith says he was repeatedly told that he needed to remain quiet if he wanted justice for his daughter. Moreover, state law requires “A division superintendent who knowingly fails to comply or secure compliance with the reporting requirements of this subsection shall be subject to the sanctions authorized in § 22.1-65. A principal who knowingly fails to comply or secure compliance with the reporting requirements of this section shall be subject to sanctions prescribed by the local school board, which may include, but need not be limited to, demotion or dismissal.”
What’s going on here?
This isn’t Humble’s emphasis, but it’s mine: an ultra-progressive school board—remember, this is the County where the most contentious parent-school battles over Critical Race Theory have been ongoing—chose to cover-up an incident because it would might give credence to conservative objections to bathroom policies that would allow biological males to use the “Ladies Rooms.” Yes, there was a cover-up of a student rape, and that is, as Humble says, outrageous. But this is also an example of ideologues in the government (municipal, this time) hiding inconvenient facts that might undercut their social agenda. That’s not only unethical, it’s despicable, especially when the facts being hidden involve a violent crime.
Look: gender-confused people face a genuine problem in deciding where to handle their bodily functions. As with the trans and transitioning athlete issue, the ethical dilemma is how much the vast majority should suffer to rectify a genuine source of discomfort afflicting a tiny minority. Progressives have come to believe that minorities, even extreme minorities, should be able to dictate to the majority, except when the minority believes in things progressives don’t respect, like the Bible. Conservatives are equally inconsistent, favoring the minority over the majority in matters like pandemic vaccines, but not bathroom selection. Integrity is not a hallmark of either side of the partisan divide right now.
The claim that allowing biological males who identify as female to use women’s rest rooms buts women in constant danger of rape is exaggerated, and, I believe, disingenuous. A single instance where this may have happened doesn’t settle the debate at all: of course such a policy could lead to sexual assault, but remote worse case scenarios can be used to reject too many reasonable public policies to count. We also know, however that the “Barn Door Fallacy” causes risk-averse officials to over-react to anomalies: I am still annoyed that I have to remove my shoes to get on an airplane an asshole tried to blow up a plane using a shoe-bomb (that didn’t even work).
Well, tough luck. The public still has an absolute right to know the facts, and it is part of the creeping tendency of the Left—faster than creeping, now— to distort facts in order to advance its agenda by deceiving the public that makes the Loudoun cover-up especially significant. Trans activists must get what they want, by any means necessary, and if that requires covering up a rape, then it’s for the greater good.
Ethics Alarms 
Elsewhere:
National School Board Association SORRY FOR LANGUAGE In Letter That Likened Parents To Domestic Terrorists
As a grateful Nation breathes a sigh of relief, that should be good enough…right…?
Were they coordinating with the DOJ? Are they still? Weird? When does the left ever apologize?
Or admit error? This is man bites dog stuff.
I have an idea.
This “allow anyone in whatever bathroom they choose” dilemma has a solution: modify all existing restrooms and locker rooms to be single user. Making states allow member equipped women to use traditional multi-user restrooms and locker rooms is essentially an unfunded federal mandate. Just include in the Build Back Better legislation funds sufficient to make all bathrooms and locker rooms single user so everyone can choose their own without consequence and the problem is solved. It would create a lot of jobs and couldn’t cost more than some multiple of trillions of dollars (which can simply be printed).
“The claim that allowing biological males who identify as female to use women’s rest rooms puts women in constant danger of rape is exaggerated, and, I believe, disingenuous.”
This is where the issue gets muddled. There are those who believe that gender-confused people are genuinely confused and those who believe that people who claim to be gender confused are just making it up. Few people who believe that a man who is genuinely convinced he is a woman will attack women if allowed to use the restroom. But they are concerned about predators..
After all, look what happened here. A male who claimed to identify as a female raped a female in the bathroom; access he got only by claiming to be a female. He clearly isn’t a female nor does it seem that his identifying as one is a claim that can be legitimately supported considering he used his penis to violate a classmate (or two, as it now seems). We have been told repeatedly that this would never ever happen.
Predators are everywhere. Haven’t we learned that over the last ten years? They will say anything, they will do anything, they will go to whatever lengths they can to get access to prey. Even the knowledge that they will go to prison isn’t enough to dissuade them because the chance to satisfy their urging surpasses the chance they will be locked up for years and years. They will claim to be 16-year old boys on the internet, they will claim to be devoted coaches who just love being around kids, they will claim their last relationship broke up because of a false allegation of abuse. They are actors. They specialize in pretending to be who they are not in order to get a potential victim to let his or her guard down.
Is it so incredible to believe that a heterosexual male would either claim transgender status or allow someone to believe he is transgender in order to get access to vulnerable women? Few public places cause people to be more vulnerable than a restroom where users are partly undressed and distracted by the immediate need at hand. There have already been incidents in which so-called transgender women have been moved to women’s prisons where they have raped female inmates. A predator doesn’t even have to claim a transgender status either. Back in the day, if a man started walking into a women’s restroom, an observant employee or customer that noticed would stop him pretty quickly. Now, with the grievance mob in charge, anyone who tried to stop a man from going into the ladies’ room might be filmed, doxxed, fired and publicly shamed as a bigot. Predators will count on a reluctance to interfere to get away with it.
Will this happen every day in every bathroom in every public place? Probably not. But it will happen. And it will happen more often than it should which is never.
Until someone transitions fully, the men’s room is for penises; the women’s room is for vaginas (note: there are exceptions to every rule. Obviously, a woman can take a 5-year old boy into the women’s room and a castrated man can use the men’s room).
Adding to the confusion, Bruce Jenner still dates women as Caitlyn Jenner. In short, guys who transition to women can still be interested sexually in women.
No one is preventing someone from identifying as the opposite sex and changing outer garments is *optional* but isn’t restricted. That is the crucial point.
What should be restricted is cross contamination of private facilities and sports.
Jack, FYI Specifically paragraph 2
Chris Marschner
OCTOBER 13, 2021 AT 7:32 AM
I am interested in understanding why the suffix phobic is added to any group of people
who disagree with or wish to limit the inclusion of another group. I believe it is misused specifically to marginalize one’s opposition. Men are regularly excluded in places where women feel the need to have private spaces. We don’t call them male-phobic. Phobias deal with irrational fears not disagreements.
I am waiting for the discussion on the coverup of the alleged rape of a 9 grader in Loudoun County by a gender fluid boy wearing a skirt in the girls restroom. The boy in the skirt repeated the crime at another school after he was transferred from the school where the first victim was attacked. Loudoun County school officials used the Sheriffs office to silence the father who wanted to speak out at a board meeting by wrestling him to the ground, bloodying his lip and charging him disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. This particular meeting was one in which Trans activists were bussed in to prevent parents from having a chance to give their comments. The activists confronted the father of the raped girl and an argument ensued. The Deputies grabbed the father’s arm and when he pulled away from the Deputy they took him down to the ground. This father actions at the meeting was cited as one of the examples of violence requiring the DOJ to treat parents as domestic terrorists. I don’t consider the father having an irrational fear of the Loudoun County school’s Trans policy; he just has serious problems with it.
Um, does anyone happen to know if any charges were filed? I was under the assumption that alleged rape and or sexual assualt was still a crime. My question would be, why exactly was the perpertrator allowed to continue to attend a school during the investigation and subsequent possible trial? I understand the importance of innocent until proven guilty, though there are many, many, people in jail awaiting the conclusion of an investigation on much shakier evidence for much less henious crimes.
I know I sound crazy, but mayhaps the bigger story here is how the alleged rapist gained easy access to yet another vulnerable population with the apparent blessing of the schools and law enforcement. Or at least their incompotence? I guess they figured it wasn’t that big of a deal. This kind of reminds me how the Catholic Church always seems to conduct it’s own “investigation”, outside the purview of Law Enforcement. Always thought that was strange.
I guess we lack all of the sordid details, though I cannot imagine that they would paint this in any better of light.
I wish that a lot of the issues around trans people were treated as disability accommodations.
If a kid in public school has a disability, the parents, school officials, therapists, etc get together and develop an IEP. This is individual to each student and outlines what accomodations they need that the school can provide.
If a trans kid needs to use the restrooms or locker room of the opposite gender, there should be a process where a need for accommodation is established. Then the student’s individual case and behavior, and the situation in the school is all taken into account and a decision is made. Some students may be allowed to use opposite gender facilities, others might need to be accommodated with permission to use single occupancy rooms or specifically monitored facilities. This should help to address students who aren’t serious, and students who may be serious but otherwise have behavior issues that make it unsafe.
The same is true of school sports, in my opinion. An IEP might allow trans students to play certain sports depending on ability, safety, etc. If the school has mixed gender teams (a female friend of mine was on a mixed gender wrestling team in highschool; the school didn’t have enough kids for either a male or female team) or one trans girl wants to participate on a girls softball or soccer team, that’s a simple accommodation, while other teams might be unable to accommodate them or only able to accommodate them as non-competing members.
Other medical issues or “disabilities” are addressed based on individuals needs or abilities. But the left has turned “trans” into an identity issue and turned accommodations into an all-or-nothing game. It’s really annoying when the right solution is already right there for Autistic kids, kids with learning and physical disabilities, and kids with other psychological problems.
At least one single restroom (toilet & sink) should be available in every school. There are other problems besides pseudo-trans rapists. Bathrooms (the old term; I’m entitled) are Bully Central, where students are most vulnerable, even more than in locker rooms. By the way, bathrooms are also prime grazing ground for theft.
What is the rational basis of segregating restrooms based on ‘gender identity’.
I mean, the physical structure of genitalia is a substantial characteristic with respect to restrooms.
But ‘gender identity’?
That makes as much sense as segregating restrooms between Mormons and Scientologists, between Eagles fans and Steelers fans, between Halo cosplayers and Star Wars cosplayers.