On October 26^th at 8:14 am police were called to Edmond Memorial High School after an incident in a girls’ bathroom that left a student with an, “injury to… eye, face and head with possible concussion” according to page 5 of the police report filed with the Edmond Police Department embedded on the ROPE site here.  [Ellipses ( ) indicate redacted information.]

In fact, the incident was so significant, the testimony of the school nurse as reported by the officer on scene states, “student’s left side of face is swollen, left eye lid swollen, complains of headache, dizziness, blurry vision, denies any nausea.  ( ) complains neck pain and ice pack applied and urge medical attention.”

The police report for this incident was obtained by ROPE from the Edmond Police Department.  Filed police reports are available to the public at large, however in this case, names and gender information have been redacted – most probably because the victim and assailant are under the age of 18 – consequently, we are able to report only on the unredacted text from the officer’s filed narrative. 

The October 26th incident report includes six written statements: three from student witnesses and one each from the school nurse, Julie Drumm, Assistant Principal, Maryjel Cochrane and Principal Brandi Wheeler.

Why would we believe this to be a case of a boy using the girl’s bathroom?  Two specific reasons.

1.  One witness statement says the following, “I was calming a friend down and I heard screaming so I stood up, went out of the stall so if I could jump in I could they were screaming, ( ) told ( ) to leave her alone and to stop looking at ( ) and then they started screaming at each other and then ( ) throug the first hit then basically jumped on ( ) started swinging to save ( ) live cuz ( ) is a man then I tried to jump in ( ) also hit ( ) from what I saw kicked ( ) in the head and the back 2 times and then we pulled ( ) up and ( ) collapsed and then the principal walked in.” (pg 4)
2. The officer of record writes the following: “Some of the students involved informed me that they speculated that ( ) was a ( ) but did not know for sure. ( ) is enrolled as a ( ). I asked the registrar secretary for the ( ) birth certificate, but the certificate of birth did not identify ( ) gender. Another document in the file (Paternity Affidavit) had a section where ( ) was marked as being ( ). I informed the principal W-Brandi Wheeler about the discrepancy in A-( ) school record.  W-Brandi asked her to clarify.  P-( ) stated that ( ) was born ( ) but identifies as a ( ).  P-( ) stated that ( ) has suffered a lot of emotional and mental abuse in the past and they moved here to start anew.” 

Again, with pertinent information redacted, it is impossible to be sure of anything regarding the incident except that there was a fight in a bathroom that caused one person to sustain severe injury.  We can assume it’s a girls’ bathroom, however, simply because most boys do not go into a bathroom in a group, or escape there to ‘calm down a friend’.  Additionally, we can assume there is an issue with gender aspect to the incident as one witness does appear to identify the assailant as a man and the officer narrative includes a statement from the Principal that the assailant was born one sex BUT identifies as another.

The Edmond Memorial parents who spoke to us about this say they were not made aware of this severe assault – an important incident which should have been disclosed to parents no matter who was involved.  Moreover, if this was a boy in the girls’ bathroom – an issue that ROPE does not support in any way – PARENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW.

Though there are poor souls who don’t wish to understand the concept of nature and biological fact – most men are much stronger than women (women boxers box each other, not other men, for example) – and that includes young men.

Girls/women deserve to be safe in their persons from rape or assault and to their personal PRIVACY while using bathrooms for girls/women – particularly at public schools and universities.  The example described by this police report could illustrate that fact perfectly.  Is this why this incident has not been publicly reported?  No matter the circumstances, schools should be absolutely transparent with parents about student safety. 

Apparently, Edmond Memorial, isn’t.

About the author: Jenni White, Education Director for Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Entitlement, has a Master’s in Biology and has taught public school from the college level to 7th grade. She also taught three of her own children through graduation and scores of others through their homeschool coop. A freelance writer, she has written numerous published articles and technical papers. She has also studied and written about federal, state and local education policy for over a decade, during which time she’s also proposed, written, and analyzed education legislation. From 2017-2021 Jenni served as the elected Mayor of the Town of Luther where she helped grow Town funds from 135 thousand to just over one million dollars. Jenni and her husband have been married since 1997 and have 5 children. You can find more about her work and experiences at LinkdIn. For more of her recent work click here. Reprinted with permission.