Bullied trans teen ran away, sex trafficked after school kept gender change secret

What do you think? Was the school wrong to not tell the family about the bullying so they could try to protect their daughter?
Is the school's decision partly at fault for this?

Many schools make it a policy to not reveal information about a child's "gender identity" at school to the child's family, even threatening to disciplinary action against teachers who do not abide by the school policy. In this case, the school could not tell the family about the bullying problems without also revealing to them the reason that the child was being bullied.

Should the school be ordered by the court to give the family lots of money?

Bullied trans teen ran away, was sex trafficked after school kept gender transition secret from family​

A Virginia high school student ran away from home and was sex-trafficked through multiple states -- in part because her high school failed to tell the child’s parents she identified as a male and was relentlessly bullied for it, a lawsuit alleges.​

"They stole my right to protect my daughter," grandmother and adoptive mother Michele Blair told the Washington Examiner of Sage, now 16.​

Sage -- who had a troubled childhood and suffered mental health issues -- started attending Appomattox County High School aged 14 on August 10, 2021 where she began identifying as a male, going by male pronouns and a male name and using the male restrooms, according to a lawsuit filed by Michele in Virginia federal court last month.​

But despite school staffers being actively involved in Sage's desire to become a boy and knowing about the repeated bullying she suffered, they "deliberately concealed" the gender change and didn’t get her parents involved until it was too late and Sage ran away. She then ended up being raped by multiple men for months in four different states, the suit claims.​

Just one day into the school year on August 11, 2021, Sage started getting viciously bullied by boys on her bus that said she looked like a boy, threatened to rape her until she "liked boys", threatened to hold her out of the bus window by her hair unless she apologized and threatened to shoot her, telling her they knew where she lived, the lawsuit alleges.​

Virginia school kept teen gender transition secret: suit (nypost.com)

 

this shows why schools need to remove bullies, zero tolerance for stuff like that

the school knew about the bullies, but kept them in school, the parents should sue

"Just one day into the school year on August 11, 2021, Sage started getting viciously bullied by boys on her bus that said she looked like a boy, threatened to rape her until she "liked boys", threatened to hold her out of the bus window by her hair unless she apologized and threatened to shoot her, telling her they knew where she lived, the lawsuit alleges."

mandatory reporting laws should of required the school to call the police

 

This is a politically twisted view of events - not surprising considering the source.

Let's remember that the "mother" was working to regain custody of Sage.

Should a school be required to report all communication with a student to a person who does not have custody???


imho, Sage needed an adult to talk to, who would protect that conversation as a counselor is required to do here in the world of humans.

Blair, who was trying to regain custody couldn't even maintain CUSTODY let alone form a supportive relationship with Sage.


Presenting this case as an example of why schools should by LAW not be allowed to provide certified counseling services is seriously perverse.

 

Maybe you misread the story or did not understand. The grandmother had custody of Sage, and the grandmother is the one who is suing. The grandmother was the parent, or as the article refers to her, "the adoptive mother" of the girl.

According to the article, it looks like the family (including the original parents) are also suing the public defender who pushed to take custody of the child away from the parents. Supposedly the reason the original parents lost custody is because they "were not sufficiently affirming" of the child's new gender identity.

Basically what you seem to be saying is the state can take away custody from parents if they do not support the child's change of gender, and then use that as justification for the school or government not to have to keep the parents informed about what's happening with their child.

 

The bottom line is that Sage rejected the parents and the grandparents, finding no support at home. That is an indictment of the parents and guardian. They can not just all write it off as a failure of the school. The guardians absolutely failed. Claiming the school as an excuse is just flat out pathetic.

I'd likely support giving the school a SERIOUS whack for their failure in providing a safe environment.

Perhaps more importantly, Sage clearly believed there was nobody that could be trusted to work out life issues. That is a SERIOUS PROBLEM.

The claim that the grandparents were ignorant of the most major issues in the life of Sage is an indictment of their parenting.

 

She ran away from the home the government put her into too. Seems like there may be a pattern there. Could just be a troubled teen girl. This sort of behavior is not too uncommon.

 

she had bullies at school threatening to rape and shoot her... the school should have removed that threat

from post #1
"threatened to rape her until she "liked boys", threatened to hold her out of the bus window by her hair unless she apologized and threatened to shoot her, telling her they knew where she lived, the lawsuit alleges."

 

Typical Leftist. You think things work that simple, don't you? That authority figures in charge can easily just solve any problem if they just do something about it. Good intentions alone do not solve problems.

First, evidence needs to be collected. That is not always such an easy thing to do. Then they can take disciplinary action against the other children, or in some cases refer them to police for criminal charges (which seems to be the most popular in option in modern "progressive" schools these days).

 

do you think those that threaten to rape and kill other children in the school should be allowed to stay in the school?

yes, the school should have reported this to the police

when someone threatens to rape, torture, kill a child at the school, police need to be called... period

from post #1
"threatened to rape her until she "liked boys", threatened to hold her out of the bus window by her hair unless she apologized and threatened to shoot her, telling her they knew where she lived, the lawsuit alleges."

 

Young teenagers in school can misbehave and make threats all the time. That type of behavior combined with saying things like that should be taken seriously, but the offenders should not be treated like adults. It does seem more like a case for school disciplinary action. Perhaps there is even a need to try to keep the bullies separated from their victim at school. If the behavior repeats and continues, then they could be expelled, or possible criminal legal action could be taken.

You seem to be taking things off topic. Maybe you can tell what this question has to do with the main issues in the story?

 

they should not be allowed to stay in our children's schools if they are threatening to rape, torture and kill other students

taking things off-topic, this is from the first post

from post #1
"threatened to rape her until she "liked boys", threatened to hold her out of the bus window by her hair unless she apologized and threatened to shoot her, telling her they knew where she lived, the lawsuit alleges."

and then she goes missing and all that happens?

"The bullying got so bad that other parents began making reports about it to the school, the court papers say."

the bulling was so bad, other parents were reporting it too

https://nypost.com/2023/09/04/virginia-school-kept-teen-gender-transition-secret-suit/

 

There are lots of misbehaving children who have behavioral issues and cause problems. What should be done with them all?

Obviously the threat to shoot her probably was not serious. We're talking about 14 or 15 year olds at a school. But it could be a little scary and traumatic to a teen girl who's being bullied.

FreshAir, are you saying you think the school should be required to give the child's family lots of money?

 

When I read the description in the OP, of these other children's behavior, my reaction was the same as FreshAir's, namely, that those kids needed to be expelled, and to face disciplinary action. Naturally, Kaz, evidence needed to be collected & so on, and it is, admittedly, not possible for a school to keep track of everything that goes on between every student, if the students do not bring things to their attention. Yet, if boys were threatening to dangle a girl outside the window of a moving school bus, this seems like the kind of thing, of which one might expect the driver to be aware. But regardless, in this case, the girl did bring her complaints of bullying to the school.

Your dismissive, "boys will be boys," attitude, Kaz, when it comes to threatening to shoot and rape a student, is very unfortunate. I would've guessed that you were one who would fault parents for being too permissive, and not enforcing discipline-- and maybe you are-- but that is not consistent with your attitude, here. Not only do all schools have anti-bullying policies, as they should, but all 50 states have laws against bullying:

<Google Snip>
How many states in the US have anti-bullying laws?

All 50 states

All 50 states have anti-bullying laws. These laws often have the strongest protections for students. And they can help put an immediate stop to the bullying. A typical state anti-bullying law requires a school to report, document and investigate bullying within a specific number of days.
https://www.understood.org › bull...
Bullying laws: Your child's rights at school - Understood.org
<End Snip>

So the unacceptable, honestly uncivilized, behavioral problems of this girl's tormentors, are central to this story, and it's not a veering "off topic," to cite the school as having failed, in properly addressing it. Rather, it is you, Kaz, who seems to have a tunnel-vision focus here, on only certain aspects of the whole situation.

 

I don't agree with the "zero tolerance" view, that is so commonly held by many progressives who run the schools.
You still did not answer the question. These 15-year-old boys bullied her, grabbed her, and while they had power over her, verbally threatened to shoot and rape her.

You still didn't really exactly answer the question. What should be done to the offenders? Never allow them to go to school ever again?

Maybe you want to kick them out of school for 1 year. Well, that's not really going to work so well either, is it? Because then they will come back, 1 year older, in the same classes with younger kids. And given their history of bullying, that's not likely to be a good situation. And then they would turn 18 years old and be considered an adult before they even entered the last year of high school.

So answer the question. Should the school have to give her money?

 

The post you are answering, was my first contribution, to your thread-- so how could I "still" have not done, anything? You imply that I have been asked this question, in the past, and have not yet responded-- when in truth, this reply of yours is the first one I have received.

Secondly, I am neither a school administrator, in law enforcement, or in the legal profession, as a family counselor, lawyer, or judge. There are mechanisms in place to deal with such behavior, and people designated to do so, in each individual situation. If that is the focus you would like to switch to, then find some official, legal guidelines governing this sort of behavior, so we will have a basis, from which to debate. AFAIK, anyway, nothing was done, in this case. Is that your argument-- that for this behavior, no disciplinary action should be required? I was sure, I'd seen you acknowledge, earlier, that some steps should have been taken.

You had also stressed the point, of the need for a full investigation, to get to the bottom of all the facts. Do you think that I or you, have them all? Yet, you want us to adjudicate the exact correct response, in the cases of these youths, without knowing everything-- in lieu of having the attitude, that the school, law enforcement, and court personnel who are trained, practiced, knowledgeable, and informed by legal guidelines, in these matters, should have been all over this case?

 

FreshAir didn't answer the question, and you didn't answer the question. That's what I meant.
(might have been more accurate to say the question still wasn't answered, despite two replies)

There should be disciplinary action for the physical part of the bullying. But again, that could be problematic because no adult saw it, and I guess there weren't any other witnesses who could come forward. For the threats, that could have been dealt with by a warning for the first offense.

That is a fair point.

But I think the real question that was being raised was is the school at fault because the school did not tell the parents about the bullying.

Suppose, for example, the school made what they thought was the most correct decisions they could regarding the bullying and disciplinary action. Should the parents have been informed?

If the parents had been informed, would that have created a high probability the parents could have somehow helped their child and prevented the awful outcome that ended up unfolding?

 

The counselor in this situation was clearly incompetent, negligent, irresponsible, and all kinds of unprofessional. I'd not till now, read the whole story, though what I'd seen, already sounded pretty bad. But the story makes clear that there were physical acts, among the abuse. The local police absolutely should have been called in, to investigate these crimes. Obviously, were that done, Sage's guardian would have been informed.

But from the first allegations, because of their seriousness, the accused should have been brought in by school administrators, for a meeting, with their parents, including receiving a warning about immediate expulsion, should there be another incident. Had that been done, it is possible the influence of the parents, and the anticipation of the trouble they would be in, if they were expelled, may have prevented the situation from ever having progressed, as far as it did.

I would have said that it was hard to believe there would have not been witnesses to any of this, but the story also mentions that even other parents, ultimately filed reports about it, to the school:

<Snip>
Throughout the month Sage continued to get bullied by boys in the boys bathrooms and in the hallways with her tormentors “touching her, threatening her with knife violence and rape, and shoving her up against the hallway wall,” the suit claims.The counselors met with Sage eight days out of the first 12 of the school year but they didn’t tell Michele they were counseling her child about her “gender discordance” and were “affirming her as a male” — while encouraging the slight 100-pound girl to use the boy’s bathroom despite the known threats from the male students, the suit claims.The bullying got so bad that other parents began making reports about it to the school, the court papers say.
<End Snip>

This counselor was absorbed with the gender dysphoria, it sounds as if, to the exclusion of the bullying problem. It also seems this school has a general disciplinary problem. The counselor should lose his job & his license, and the school deserves to be sued.

 

Don't you think that's a little harsh? The counselor is obviously wacky, we both agree. Had their priorities mixed up. But it sounds absurd to automatically fire anyone who makes a mistake or error of judgement and take away their professional license.

Which kind of leads to the question of when should organizations be financially responsible for mistakes made by their employees?

Unlike most progressives, it seems, I do not believe that should be automatic.

 

they could be home schooled, go to a school for troubled children, get a GED.... that is not the school's problem, they are not there to cuddle people that threaten to rape, torture and kill other students

 

Obviously the counselor is most at fault, and should be sued, individually, as well. But, unless school counselors were required to carry insurance to cover the damages, in instances of this kind, of course the school will be sued, as well, and of course they have some responsibility, for the actions of their counselors. Or do you feel schools should be able to make anybody a counselor, then leave them in charge of childrens' welfare, unsupervised-- and have no liability, in the matter?

As soon as Sage told the counselor of other students threatening to do serious bodily harm to her-- hang her out the window of their bus, by her hair, rape her, shoot her-- this should have been reported to the school principal. Now, I didn't say what I thought the award should be, only that the school deserved to be sued. Then it would come out, if the school has a policy about this, for example. If the counselor had been going rogue, in direct violation of administration policy, of which he was fully aware, well that is good for the school's defense, is it not? But if the school had not provided a structure for the counselor, had left the counselor's handling of student problems, to their own discretion, then of course, the school is liable, when that discretion is this badly executed. I would think that any school administration would want to stay appraised of ongoing cases of bullying on their premises, and in their buses-- wouldn't you? So was this a policy, the counselor was ignoring? Or was there no such policy-- which would be a case of negligence, by the school?

 

I would bet that the people that kidnapped her and turned her into a sex slave were acquaintances of these boys that bullied her, crazy story, probably older gang members they knew and told their story too

 

Whatever Sage's environment was, whatever the parents and grandparents had to do with it, whatever problems CPS may have been trying to solve, there can be no doubt that the problem here is that there was NO caregiver who could offer the support that Sage needed and the school counselling was not substantial enough to backfill that.

In fact, the school's failure to keep Sage safe hits me as criminal.

But, this is not an example that supports the theme you want. It's an example of a kid who has NOBODY in their lives that they can trust.

It supports the importance of more substantial school counseling, in an environment where Sage could have discussed issues in an environment of trust and privacy.

 

Yes, it is all too common.

What do YOU believe the government should have done for Sage when her whole extended family failed her?

 

That's extremely unlikely and improbable, FreshAir.

 

not so sure, word of mouth travels, and sadly some hate trans, and these boys picked up their hate from somewhere

where do kids learn this stuff

""Just one day into the school year on August 11, 2021, Sage started getting viciously bullied by boys on her bus that said she looked like a boy, threatened to rape her until she "liked boys", threatened to hold her out of the bus window by her hair unless she apologized and threatened to shoot her, telling her they knew where she lived, the lawsuit alleges.""

and she then is kidnapped and becomes a sex slave by some men?