An Oklahoma parent sued their daughter’s school district last week, alleging that the staff’s failure to enforce a state law requiring that students use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender at birth led to the teen being “severely beaten” by a trans classmate last fall.
Theresa Gooden alleges in the suit filed last Thursday that her 15-year-old daughter – identified as “E.G.” – was “attacked and severely beaten” in the girls’ restroom at Edmond Memorial High School by a 17-year-old transgender woman on Oct. 26, 2022.
The document, which was obtained by The Post, notes that the accused attacker was assigned male at birth, and was using the women’s bathroom despite a state law signed in May 2022 that requires public school students to use restrooms matching the sex on their birth certificates.
Trans students who decline to follow the policy must use “a single-occupancy restroom or changing room.’”
The alleged attacker was removed from the school by police on Oct. 21 after making threatening E.G., the lawsuit states.
The school district said in a statement in December that it did not know the student was assigned male at birth because they only started attending Edmond Memorial days before the incident, FOX25 reported.
The student’s parents enrolled them as a woman without a birth certificate, which is not required to begin high school, the statement continued.
The lawsuit, however, accuses Edmond Memorial of allowing the trans student to continue using the women’s bathroom even after E.G. told assistant principal Maryjel Cochrane about their gender identity.
Gooden alleges that the subsequent bathroom beatdown left her daughter with “severe physical and mental injuries, severe physical and mental pain and suffering, and severe emotional distress.”
The plaintiff is seeking a jury trial.
It was previously reported that multiple people were involved in the Oct. 26 fight. Gooden’s lawsuit does not mention any other victims.
In a video message sent to parents two months after the incident, Superintendent Dr. Angela Grunewald confirmed that the accused attacker was no longer enrolled at Edmond Memorial.
Grunewald also acknowledged that the state bathroom policy was violated during the alleged fight, and said that “consequences were given for [the violation].”
“We take our policies seriously, and we expect students to follow them,” she said.
Edmond Public Schools did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for a comment on the lawsuit.
