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A North Carolina high school will allow students to carry pepper spray, razors and other items which one board member suggested they might need to defend themselves against transgender classmates they encounter in the bathroom.
The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education removed prohibitive language in its policy on defensive weapons this week but will continue to debate which items will be allowed on campus, reported the Salisbury Post.
One school board member said pepper spray and other chemical irritants should be allowed in case a court strikes down the state’s controversial HB2, better known as the anti-LGBT “bathroom bill.”
“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,” said board member Chuck Hughes.
[…]
Board members agreed to allow students to carry disposable razors, as well — although they maintained a ban on straight-edge razors.
After some disagreement on razors, board members agreed to specify that personal razors should be used for shaving only while at school.
For crying out loud. Just when it can’t get more ridiculous and terrifying…
This bathroom business is starting to feel like the satanic panic of the 80s and 90s
and the witch hunts of earlier centuries.
I just hope that the death-toll will ve lower :(
So true!
Also, being high school students, there is no chance that anyone would try to abuse the privilege of carrying pepper spray by releasing it when not defending themselves, right? (/sarcasm)
HB2 has made bathrooms LESS safe for women and children because predators can now try to use the excuse that they are transgender to go into the “wrong” bathroom. Not that, as noted in your blog entry, they couldn’t go in the bathrooms before. If the legislators really wanted to make bathrooms safer, they should attempt to write laws that go after predators, not a minority segment of the population that just wants to pee.
So kids should only be bringing pepper spray to school to pepper spray themselves, obviously. Perfect logicks. Checkmate libruls.
(Are we seriously comparing grooming tools to fucking weapons? What the fuck is wrong with these people?)
Assault. That’s called assault. Sometimes rape. Those laws already exist.
Siobhan @5:
You are right, of course! The purpose of HB2 is to take away the rights of people. It does nothing to protect anyone. Laws that already exist criminalize the activities that the proponents of HB2 claim it will protect women and children from.
Can’t these kids afford bodyguards like proper rich people?
As someone who cannot stand the stink of perfumes, deodorants, “flavored” shampoos and soaps, and similar, there is not much sodding difference. People who dose themselves in formated orange & rat’s piss, or whatever is the puke de jour, are just as fecking annoying, antisocial, and downright rude. The fecking ordure assault is an FSMing damn “weapon”.
blf @8
A subtle hint of scent is nice, but nobody does “subtle” any more, it’s all sledgehammers to the sinuses.
I get it, though. My personal scent peeves are: people who overdo it*; sealed products that you can smell through the packaging (lots of detergents do this); air “fresheners” that, at best, mask the underlying odor, and at worst, mix with the odor and make it that much worse; and that one guy — everbody knows one of these — that one guy who, for whatever reason, you can smell coming from blocks away.
*Mostly teenagers and old ladies, but certainly not limited to those demographics!
I have a teenager who’s questioning their gender, and who more and more frequently, is presenting as the opposite gender. I am wholly behind them and supportive, except when it comes to public bathrooms. I want to tell these parents who are so “scared” for their gender-conforming kids that they have to arm them in their “appropriate” bathrooms that I am ten times more scared to let my child use ANY public bathroom.
Trixiefromthelurk:
All the hugs for you and teenspawn. I do not envy you the fear that has to be inhabiting your head these days. Fuck, I’m scared to go into a public lav, because some asshole might decide I don’t look “feminine” enough.
Thanks, Caine. We live in Canada, but this kind of thing gets any more traction in the States and soon we’ll see the loonery here too, just (hopefully) not as government legislation. I don’t have to worry about school though -- it’s a small school with all gender neutral bathrooms. It’s just when we go out, but I’ve armed said teenspawn with years of Kung Fu and Taekwondo lessons.