Parents and community members are outraged after a transgender student was humiliated during an active shooter drill at a Virginia middle school.
According to reports, school faculty were divided on which bathroom the student should take shelter in, eventually deciding they should leave her alone in the gym.
Here's a Facebook post from Equality Stafford, an LGBTQ+ advocate group in Virginia, that outlines the incident in further detail:
Appallingly, the transgender student had to watch as faculty members debated over her fate.
From an outside perspective, the solution seems obvious enough: allow the student to take shelter in the bathroom of their chosen gender identity.
Clearly, that didn't happen -- and people are angry about the student's treatment.
Supporters of Equality Stafford reacted with similar outrage:
Here's the bottom line: if you're practicing for a mass shooting event, a child's gender identity should be the last thing up for debate and scrutiny. The safety of the children should be the only priority.
While this could amount to a simple misunderstanding, we hope staff at the middle school receives sensitivity training as a result of this unfortunate incident.