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Girls’ high school volleyball team in Vermont banned from entering their OWN locker room after complaining about a transgender student using it and ‘made that inappropriate comment to them’
- Randolph High School volleyball team forced to change in the bathroom after complaining about transgender students using their locker room
- The female players allege that the transgender student made a comment to them while changing that they thought was ‘inappropriate’
- School law allows students to play sports and use the locker rooms regardless of the gender they identify with
- School is now investigating gender locker room dispute
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Members of a high school girls volleyball team in Vermont have been banned from using their own locker room and are now forced to change in a single bathroom after complaining about a transgender teammate.
Some teammates claim the Randolph Union High School transgender player made an “inappropriate comment” to some of them while they were changing in the locker room.
They now want the school to move the transgender player, who has not been named by name. No details about the allegedly inappropriate comment have been shared.
But Vermont state law means students can exercise and use the locker that matches the gender they identify with.
Blake Allen, a player on the team, said: WCAX how uncomfortable it makes her, saying ‘it’s a huge thing. . . everyone asks ‘why can’t you go in the locker room?’
Blake Allen has spoken out against an unidentified transgender student who uses the girls’ locker rooms at her high school in Vermont. As a result, the entire girls volleyball team is no longer allowed to use the locker room
Shortly after the incident, the school sent an email to the players’ families informing them that the school “has ample space for students who are not comfortable with the privacy laws to change.”
With about 10 players on the team, Allen said there’s no point in changing them all in the single bathroom box.
“They want all the girls who feel uncomfortable to change in a single cubicle bathroom, which would take more than 30 minutes,” she said. “Where, if one person were to change separately, it would take a minute, as if there were no extra time.”
Allen said the problem doesn’t lie with the transgender athlete playing on the team, but in a locker room where the female students are most vulnerable.
“There are biological guys who go to the girl’s bathroom, but never a locker room,” Allen said.
Vermont’s laws state that transgender students — such as those at Randolph High, pictured — can use any facilities appropriate to their gender identity
She added, “My mom wants me to do this interview so we can try to change something.”
School officials have sent another email informing parents that they are investigating allegations that the volleyball girls harassed the transgender student.
Lisa Randolph, co-chair of Randolph High School, said any policy violations would result in disciplinary action consistent with school rules, adding that student safety is the “district’s top priority.” .
Under the policy of the Vermont Agency of Education, “the use of restrooms and locker rooms by transgender students requires the school to consider numerous facts,” the agency said.
The agency states in their policy that “a transgender student should not be required to use a locker room or restroom that conflicts with the student’s gender identity.”
The school’s investigation is ongoing.
Transgender athletes and college students have become a hot-button issue in recent years, especially when they’ve transitioned from male to female.
Trans swimmer Lia Thomas sparked an outcry over dishonesty after she broke multiple university swimming records, leading to a crackdown on transgender women who participated in swimming.