On Monday, the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education, located in North Carolina, voted to let students bring pepper spray on campus. Why the sudden rush to let students carry what the board calls “defensive sprays”? As board member Chuck Hughes explained while endorsing the proposal:
Depending on how the courts rule on the bathroom issues, it may be a pretty valuable tool to have on the female students if they go to the bathroom, not knowing who may come in.
Hughes was alluding to a recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision holding that a federal ban on sex discrimination in education encompasses gender identity discrimination against trans students. The ruling is being appealed.
The Salisbury Post reports that at least one board member, Travis Allen, was concerned about the policy—not because it was motivated by anti-trans animus, but because pepper spray can be a dangerous weapon. His fears were ultimately assuaged, however, when he concluded that a bottle of Windex or a computer could do the same damage as a defensive spray. “I could do more damage with my laptop than I could with a bottle of pepper spray,” he declared.
At press time, the number of students who have been assaulted by predators who feign a trans identity to gain access to bathrooms is zero.
