A local news outlet in Vermont removed a story they broke about the controversy surrounding a high school girls volley team opposing a transgender athlete being in the locker room.
The outlet, WCAX-TV, first reported on the controversy circulating around the volleyball team at Randolph Union High School in Randolph, Vermont, in late September. The school, complying with state law, allowed a 14-year-old transgender student to change in a locker room with girls, a rule that has made many on the team feel uneasy.
Days later, the outlet quietly removed their reporting and the coverage currently reads, “404/Not Found.” WCAX News Director Roger Garrity told local Vermont outlet Seven Days that they removed it quietly to avoid any more controversy.
“We didn’t announce it then for fear it might further inflame the situation,” Garrity told the outlet. “We are now working with LGBTQ advocates on a message to the community acknowledging the harm that was caused.”
The outlet interviewed one of the athletes, Blake Allen, who expressed her discomfort with having to change in front of a “biological man” in the locker room. “They want all the girls who feel uncomfortable to get changed in a single-stall bathroom, which would take over 30 minutes,” Allen told WCAX in an interview. “Where, if one person got changed separately, it would take a minute, like no extra time.”
Allen was far from alone, as several girls on the team objected to changing in the presence of the transgender student, ABC 4 News reported. In early October, the school banned the team from changing in the room and opened an investigation into allegations that the girls harassed the student, according to the New York Post.
Apparently the outlet that originally broke this story, @wcax, has deleted its story on the school kicking the volleyball team out of the locker room when the girls protested about a trans identifying student (biological male) using their locker room. https://t.co/ZXFDogfJQS
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 11, 2022
Allen said that the school has turned down all complaints made by students and parents due to state law that allows transgender students to play on sports teams and use facilities that align with their gender identity, ABC 4 News reported. (RELATED: Virginia School Board Approves Transgender Policy For Bathrooms And Locker Rooms)
“My mom wants me to do this interview to try to make a change,” Allen told WCAX, according to ABC 4 News. “I feel like stating my opinion…that I don’t want a biological man changing with me…that I should not have harassment charges or bullying charges. They should all be dropped.”
Parents and students immediately expressed their discomfort and opposition to the situation. One 14-year-old team member told the Daily Signal that the transgender student made the girls feel uncomfortable as the student reportedly sat in the back of the locker room and watched them change. She asked the student not to come in, but the transgender student allegedly told her it was fine and stood in the corner watching, which made her feel highly uncomfortable.
“He was born a boy,” an anonymous female student said. “I don’t care if he’s on my team, he can join any team, I don’t care. But when I’m undressing and there’s a male in the girls locker room or in the bathroom with me, I feel very uncomfortable.”
Another team mate also informed the transgender student that the girls needed their privacy, the Daily Signal reported. The teammates addressed their discomfort with school officials, but were told the school had to comply with state law.
One teammate said someone in a math class showed the transgender student the news surrounding the girls’ discomfort, leading the student to allegedly say “I’m going to f—ing kill someone,” the Daily Signal reported. The student then outwardly expressed hatred for one of the female students.
After the locker room had been closed, Orange Southwest School District superintendent Layne Millington announced that the school website had been hacked and covered in “hate speech, symbols, and photographs targeting transgender individuals,” the Daily Signal reported.
The superintendent then said people needs to recognize that LGBTQ people “want to belong” and that transgender people are “not predators.”
WCAX-TV did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment as to the reason the story was deleted.