Oklahoma mother Theresa Gooden has filed a lawsuit against Edmond Public Schools (EPS) after her 15-year-old daughter was violently attacked by a transgender student inside the school’s female washroom.
Gooden’s claim against the school district was filed on May 25, 2023, seven months after the male student attacked her daughter.
As previously detailed by pro-child safeguarding outlet Reduxx, police first responded to reports of a fight that had broken out at Edmond Memorial High School on October 26, 2022.
The attending officer noted that Gooden’s daughter had “several red areas” on her face, and that both of her eyes were beginning to swell. The 15-year-old victim told the officer that the transgender student, who is 17, approached her in the women’s restroom while she was with her friends.
When the girl ignored him, the transgender student reacted violently. He hit the victim in the face, pulled her hair, and forced her to the ground. One witness to the incident described the attack as being entirely unprovoked, the girl being “knocked out clean on the floor” with no retaliation.
Once on the floor, the transgender student began kicking and punching the girl in the head repeatedly.
The victim’s friends were in the washroom at the time and witnessed the attack while pleading with the transgender student to stop his assault. One of the other young girls attempted to intervene and was also punched in the face by the boy.
Speaking to police, the girl who intervened said she did so because she feared the transgender student was going to kill her friend.
According to a police report on the incident obtained by Reduxx, the victim sustained injuries to her eye, face and head and was experiencing a “a possible concussion” after the assault.
When interviewed by police, the transgender student claimed he had initially approached the victim because he wanted to “pay her back” for clothes he had stolen from her.
Gooden’s case against the district was filed after Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed SB 615 into law, which made it a legal requirement for all public schools to instruct students to use the bathroom corresponding with their birth sex.
Accommodations were made available in a clause that permitted single-use facilities to be available for those who did not wish to use multiple occupancy restrooms.
SB 615 detailed that schools were not permitted to make policies contravening the law, and that school districts that did not comply with the order would see a 5% cut in their state funding.
The law also stipulated that the parents could take action against a public school if the district was found to be in noncompliance with the stature.
According to Gooden’s suit against EPS, her daughter’s school knew that the transgender student frequently used the women’s restroom. Disturbingly, the school was also aware that the transgender student had made previous threats of violence against her daughter on school grounds. In the days leading up to the assault, the transgender student had been removed from the school by police after threatening the girl.
In her lawsuit, Gooden claims that she was never informed about the threats that had been made prior to the October 26 attack.
Gooden’s suit is premised on the assertion that EMHS continued to allow the transgender student to use the women’s restroom despite knowing he was male, in clear violation of Oklahoma’s Statue 70.
The negligence of EMHS to comply with state law places them responsible for the physical injuries and mental suffering faced by the victim at the hands of her assailant.
Gooden is seeking $75,000 USD in compensation from the district.
