A video showing a woman breaking into a bathroom stall as a transgender student is sitting on the toilet with her pants down was recently posted on social media and is provoking criticism of Osseo Senior High School in Maple Grove, Minnesota. The student took the video with her phone, which shows a school administrator using a long stick to reach over the stall door and unlock it, then opening the door and turning her back to the student. There were also two adult men, one in the doorway and one fully inside the girls’ restroom.
The student, who is “likely underage” according to the Daily Dot , goes by Cece Doll on her Facebook account. The video was shared on Twitter by 18-year-old Kenidra Woods, who organized the Hope for Humanity Project earlier this year in response to gun violence in her community, reports Teen Vogue .
“I’m not personally in touch with the student, but in her video, she asked for people to share it far and wide,” Kenidra Woods told the Daily Dot . “So, I made it my priority to share it because it infuriated me to my core. No one should be treated in the manner she was treated.”
A transgender female student @ Osseo Senior High was ostracized by administration, violated, and put out of school for using the Girl’s bathroom. ?
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/Pkh46MAjJP
— Kenidra4Humanity (@KenidraRWoods_) November 29, 2018
The majority of the video consists of Doll sitting with the stall opened as she protests the actions by the administrators in the bathroom.
“There’s no concern to safety just because I’m using the bathroom,” she says. “I’m so scared and violated right now. They just walked into the bathroom while I was using the bathroom for no reason.”
Issues with trans people using the bathroom that fits their gender identity rather than the gender they were assigned at birth came to the attention of the general public in the past couple of years. Transgender individuals have struggled with this problem for much longer, having to choose between potentially being harassed and assaulted in one bathroom or being accused of criminal behavior in another. Recently, states have been drafting laws explicitly prohibiting trans people from using a bathroom that does not fit their gender assigned at birth or laws preventing this kind of discrimination.
According to CBS Minnesota , a spokesperson for Osseo Schools released a statement claiming that the video misrepresents the incident, but declines to explain how.
“We wish we could provide additional details about this incident but are committed to protecting the student’s right to data privacy,” the spokesperson said.
Doll also posted a second video in which she identifies the administrators who allegedly violated her privacy by breaking into her bathroom stall.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=375894199813840&set=a.101247750611821&type=3&permPage=1