Facing assault charges
More on the school corridor assault on a girl (that I meant to add to the post about it but ran out of time, sorry) in a suburb of Portland (Oregon):
School officials in Tigard-Tualatin, a suburb southwest of Portland, say the incident is now under criminal investigation. The attacker was arrested and is facing assault charges, said Jennifer Massey, the public information officer for the Tualatin Police Department; the case was referred to the Washington County Juvenile Department. The district would not comment on the specific disciplinary actions it had taken against the attacker.
Oregon Live goes off on what I consider a tangent, about a trend of brawls in schools and how schools are trying to cope. Then of course it goes off on that other tangent.
Video of the incident made its way around the Tigard-Tualatin community, and then to conservative commentators, who seized upon the appearance and clothing of the perpetrator and concluded without confirmation that they were transgender.
There you go, that’s the important thing – Divine Gender. If “they” is transgender, probably “they” should get restitution from that girl “they” slammed to the floor and yanked around by the hair and punched repeatedly. It must be all her fault, not “their” violent sneak attack.
That assumption prompted an onslaught of furious, often profane calls to the district and to the school from people around the country, as those who encountered the incident online assumed wrongly that the perpetrator had been differently disciplined due to their supposed gender identity.
Do let’s stop talking about the violent attack on the girl and talk about the poor fragile perpetrator instead.
I’ve watched the video and have absolutely no idea whether the perpetrator is trans or not. The voice seems a little deep, but not enough for me to draw any conclusions. If I was just shown this video without being told the context (that it is supposedly a trans student), I don’t think it would have occurred to me to think that.
Yes, it could be the case that the perpetrator is trans. It could be that the “reason” for the assault was misgendering. It could be that the school initially didn’t take the matter as seriously because a trans student was involved. But at this point, it all seems like supposition piled on speculation. It could also just be one cis student assaulting another, and that some online commentators jumped the gun here.
I don’t love the school board here chastising people for sharing the video. No doubt they’re frustrated at getting profane calls from strangers around the country — and doubly so if in fact it’s all based on an erroneous premise — but it does give an air of “please don’t embarrass us by showing that an assault happened in our school,” for which I have no sympathy.
Same. I don’t know whether he’s trans or not either, and don’t much care. (I guess the only amount I care is if he thinks being trans makes it ok to do what he did.) The issue is that insane violence meted out by a male and suffered by a female.
I meant that I’m not even sure the assailant is male. That’s not at all obvious to me from the video.
I just watched that again.
The assailant is wearing something that looks like a bra or bikini top on a fairly flat chest.
That isn’t conclusive, but suggests a TiM.
Screechy – you mean you meant to say it wouldn’t have occurred to you that the assailant is male? It never occurred to me that he could be anything but male. I didn’t know and couldn’t tell whether he was trans or not, but the maleness was (or seemed) so obvious that there wasn’t much to think about.
Ok no, I take it back. I looked again and see that I misremembered. [Make a note of it kids! This is why eyewitness testimony can be so unreliable!] I thought he was markedly bigger, but he’s not. Looking again reminded me that I was puzzled about what was going on the first time I saw it.
Right, the hair and bra top suggest to me that this is someone who is presenting as female. But I just don’t see any reason to assume that it’s a biological male. Again, it could be, I can’t rule it out, but I don’t think that would have occurred to me without it being framed that way.
Yes, the assailant seems big and strong relative to the victim, but that doesn’t tell us much — we don’t even know if the two students are the same age.
Here is a statement by the mother of the girl who was battered. She says the assailant is a ‘biological male student dressed as a girl’. (Found in this thread on Lipstick Alley.)
Riley Gaines has another video of purportedly the same student attacking 2 other girls.
https://x.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1707459621118530043?s=20
Re: #8: the mother of the victim (if it is indeed the mother) giving out the name of a juvenile offender is not helping. Let the police and the courts do their job, not the mob, online or otherwise.
“Profane’ is a telling choice of word: “Of persons, behaviour, etc.: characterized by, exhibiting, or expressive of a disregard or contempt for sacred things” [OED]
If those are indeed videos of the same student attacking other girls, I think it lends credence to the idea that the perpetrator is arranging for people to film him. I don’t think it is accidental that people were taking video in a school hallway and “just happened” to catch, full-frame, close by, attacks by this kid.
Sackbut, it could be that the perp is arranging for people to film him. It could also be that the girls are filming each other on the regular because they’re sick of getting beaten up by this creep. It could be that they see him getting aggro and out come the phones, because the school is doing nothing to protect them.
@#8 J.A.:
Agreed, extrajudicial shit is getting out of hand. Also would be nice if people in metaphorical Lubbock would butt out of Portland’s affairs.