Randolph Union High School is postponing its second public forum intended to discuss a controversy over transgender rights after the district received more threatening phone calls.
“In conferring with local law enforcement, the district will postpone all RUHS and district level open forums including the work session scheduled for tomorrow night,” Layne Millington, Orange Southwest School District superintendent, announced to the school community via email on Wednesday afternoon. The forum was “designed to engage the community in problem solving about these very issues.”
Although “there are no credible threats,” Millington said, “out of an abundance of caution we have ramped up security around the district.”
Randolph has become the center of an international right-wing media firestorm after a story published by WCAX in September featured a student volleyball player objecting to a transgender teammate’s use of a school locker room, which spurred hate speech toward the girl and her family. WCAX has since deleted that story in an attempt to quell the controversy.
The mother of the transgender student told VTDigger that the family has faced an onslaught of tranphobic harrasment since the original story was published.
Last week, 350 people attended a community forum at Randolph Union to discuss the situation, the White River Valley Herald reported. Millington told the community that the district had been flooded with hateful social media posts and voicemails, most initiated by out-of-state groups.
“As a district leader and a Randolph community member, it is incredibly sad to see how some folks choose to behave; and to see what this type of behavior by adults is modeling for our students,” Millington wrote. “It’s extremely hard for the district to create a school environment free from bullying, harassment, and intimidation, when these are the very behaviors our students witness from adults both locally and abroad.”