School Mob Attacks Trans Boy in Toilet Cubicle
School/sheriff refuse to discipline/charge violent bullies
Warning: anti-transgender and homophobic slurs some people will find traumatizing appear in the text of this story. I’m including them to help readers appreciate the harsh reality of what a gang of violent bullies did to Tobi Yandle.
Can we put a face on hatred of transgender people, please?
Can we get personal about bullying? Can we talk about how adults RIGHT NOW are encouraging children to behave as cruel bullies, then validating them when they follow through?
Picture this:
A 16-year-old transgender boy hurries through a crowded school corridor. He has to go, bad. You can see his urgency as he jiggles the handle of a single-stall faculty restroom he’s had permission to use ever since Tennessee passed a law forbidding him to use the boy’s room. You can see his agitation as he realizes the restroom is unoccupied but locked. He hurries to another faculty restroom, but it’s also unoccupied and locked. He eyes a girl’s restroom, but doesn’t dare enter for fear of being harassed. Then he darts into a boy’s room and rushes into the first stall he sees, hoping nobody notices.
We know these details thanks to school security-camera footage, which Tobi’s mother insisted be preserved, because of what happened next:
A mob of boys rushes into the restroom screaming slurs and threats as they beat and kick at the cubicle door. “Fuckin’ tranny!” shouts one of the teenagers. Another one yells that Tobi is a “sick lesbo.” Several boys chant “Dyke! Dyke! Dyke!” as the cubicle door shakes and threatens to give way.
Tobi stands up and presses his full body weight against the door as the bullies continue to pound and kick. With just one free hand, he manages to get his phone out of his pocket and text a friend for help.
Long minutes pass as the threats, slurs, punches and kicks continue, as Tobi prays he’s strong enough to stop the mob from breaking down the door. Finally, Assistant Principal Lorie Gober bursts into the restroom. “What’s going on in here!?” she shouts.
Tobi, who is shaking and crying, feels relieved until he realizes Gober isn’t angry at the gang of bullies; she’s shouting at Tobi. She says Tobi could face serious consequences for violating school policies and state law. All she tells the boys who had been threatening to beat Tobi is they should hurry to their next class.
Siegel High School and Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office take no action
When Tobi went home that day and told his mother Sherri Yandle what happened, she says she became angry and fearful for his safety.
She contacted Assistant Principal Gober at Siegel High School to request protection and to ask that action be taken to discipline the bullies and send a strong signal that further violence or threats of violence would not be tolerated.
Gober gave her the same line she gave Tobi — he was at fault and would probably face school disciplinary action for using the wrong restroom. Sherri demanded to know why the school’s clear anti-bullying policies did not apply in this case. Gober refused to answer.
Next, Sherri contacted the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office to ask them to charge the bullies with assault, which two criminal attorney colleagues have told me would be ordinary and expected when a person had to put their weight against a door to ward off blows and threats of violence. Deputies brushed Sherri off, uninterested in the case.
Sherri and Tobi go to media to seek justice
Sherri had a long talk with her son before deciding on their next move. She says she couldn’t let the matter drop because Tobi is scared the boys who tried to break into that stall will act on their violent threats. Tobi has been so frightened he’s been plagued by headaches, can’t focus in school, and hasn’t been sleeping. He decided he needs to make the story public to help other kids in his shoes. He wants the public to understand the violent threats trans kids face in school merely for needing to use restrooms.
Sherri went to local news outlets like the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal and News Channel Five Nashville with the story. Both outlets reported Tobi’s plight, the high school’s refusal to enforce anti-bullying policies, and the sheriff department’s refusal to enforce the law. After the story came out, the Rutherford County School District and Sheriff’s Office released a joint statement:
Although the school district has not been contacted directly by this parent, an assistant principal at the school has spoken with the student and the student’s mother concerning an alleged incident in the bathroom, although there are some variances in the story.
Rutherford County Schools does have a policy in place that allows students or employees to use private, single stall bathrooms if needed and requested. The state of Tennessee also has enacted a new law concerning transgender students and bathroom use, and the school district is required to follow this law.
However, the school district will investigate any allegations of sexual harassment or discrimination under the federal Title IX act.
In stunning non sequitur, agencies reference irrelevant state law
LGBTQ and trans rights activists have taken great exception to a Tennessee law Governor Bill Lee signed this year that allows private citizens to sue school districts that let transgender students use restrooms that align with their gender identity. The Human Rights Campaign has helped the parents of two transgender teens sue Tennessee in federal court in an attempt to overturn the law.
Both the school district and the sheriff’s office have repeatedly referenced that law since Sherri went to the press, as if it somehow justifies their refusal to take action against criminal assault and bullying.
The new law is irrelevant to this case.
Sherri is not one of the parents who are suing. Tobi has not refused to use single-occupancy restrooms that the school has (apparently only theoretically) made available to him.
He tries not to use school restrooms in any circumstances, but sometimes he has no choice. This time when he had no choice, the restrooms he had agreed to use were locked without explanation. Since he’s never been given a key, he made a fast decision in a moment of urgency that any human should be able to relate to.
He arguably made an unwise decision, but none of his available choices were good.
The gang of boys who screamed, kicked, punched, and lobbed transphobic/homophobic slurs had plenty of good choices. They could have calmly walked to the school office and lodged a complaint if the matter was so important to them. Instead, they violated criminal law. They also violated clear school anti-bullying policy, and so did Assistant Principal Lorie Gober in failing to enforce the policy.
Gober also violated school policy (and arguably the new law) when she threatened to punish Toby instead helping him find ways to actually use restrooms the school had designated for him.
Can we put a face on hatred of transgender people, please?
I’m not going to show you what Tobi looks like, because he and his mother want his privacy protected. But he looks not all unlike the boy whose photo I headed this story with.
He looks like a boy who is afraid to go to school, afraid to use the restroom, certain that the adults in his life who are supposed to protect him refuse to do so. He’s watched them tolerate and effectively encourage violent bullying.
Does ideology really matter here?
What difference does it make what any of the adults in this case think about gender theory or transgender politics? Trans people exist. Sometimes they’re kids. And they have to use public restrooms just like everybody else.
Violence and threats of violence should never be tolerated or encouraged. Isn’t that just basic?
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James Finn is a former Air Force intelligence analyst, long-time LGBTQ activist, an alumnus of Queer Nation and Act Up NY, a regular columnist for queer news outlets, and an “agented” but unpublished novelist. Send questions, comments, and story ideas to [email protected].
