We Can Have All The Laws, But… (Part 2)

Even with all the laws and regulations can’t stop hate.

It seems like all the bigots are crawling out from under the rocks now that the current administration has rescinded the protections of Title IX in schools.

Transgender students told to leave South Glens Falls school bus
Post Star
By Michael Gott
September 21, 2017

SOUTH GLENS FALLS — Two transgender high school students were told to get off a South Glens Falls school bus on Wednesday after they say the driver became upset because they wanted to sit on the side of the bus with the boys.

A school official said the district regretted the incident, which was recorded on video and posted on Facebook, and said it never should have happened.

Superintendent of Schools Michael Patton called the matter “unfortunate” and said it was not handled appropriately at all. The students should not be segregated by sex on a bus, he said.

For some reason the bus driver segregated the students by gender on the bus and that is when the trouble began.

Leo Washington, 16, and 15-year-old (Aaren) Layla Sweenor both identify as neither male nor female, which is referred to as trans nonbinary. (Sweenor said people know her by both names and it was how her email was signed.) They wanted to sit on the boys side.

“Before he started the bus, (the bus driver) gave us this weird look and he told us to get to the girls side of the bus and we didn’t move because we felt more comfortable where we were sitting. When we tried to explain it to him, he started yelling at us to move to the other side of the bus,” Washington said.

The bus driver said that he segregated the students by gender to keep the peace on the bus; the school system’s superintendent said “wanted to create some type of order on the bus” But the driver sure went at it the wrong way and he probably violated Title IX in the process.