Lebanon Middle School bomb threat comes after transgender discussion

Mar. 22—A Lebanon Middle School student challenged the school board on the issue of transgender students in the girls' locker room in January.

Her presentation, available online, set off a short-lived local social media firestorm.

Then the Real News Michiana blog, an independent news outlet run by Lebanon native Clifton French, became aware of the video.

French, on March 12, posted a story about the girl's presentation in which she asked the board to "imagine" being an 11-year-old girl encountering a boy in the girls' locker room. She never actually said it had happened to her.

French's headline read: "That was the first time I saw a boy half-naked — 11YO girl forced to share locker room with boy at LMS."

The outlet shared a link to the story on social media and it went viral.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita commented on the blog's Facebook post, saying in part, "Biological boys should not be allowed to change in the girl's locker room or vice versa. It's not a difficult concept. It's common sense."

Rokita's statement fails to mention that the federal government dictates which facilities transgender students may use, and the corporation's hands are tied.

Two Instagram groups, with a combined 2.2 million followers, also posted a link to the story and the widespread coverage "turned up the heat," locally, Lebanon Community Schools Superintendent Jon Milleman said this week.

The middle school received a bomb threat March 13, almost immediately after the story spread nationwide.

Lebanon Community Schools Police, Lebanon Police, and Boone County Sheriff's deputies evacuated the building and moved children to another location for their parents to pick up.

"We had to escort 850 students across a public street," Milleman said. "They had to endure an Indiana State Police explosives unit entering their building. They had to see explosive sniffing dogs going through the hallways. Staff could not return to their vehicles. Parents were fearful for their student's safety. School board members, administrators, and district administrators felt personally threatened and like their families were threatened."

There was no bomb, Boone County Sheriff Tony Harris confirmed.

The bomb threat emailed to the superintendent, administration, and school board members, linked the locker room situation as motivation, authorities said.

But the girl who complained about being in the locker room with a half-dressed boy was never in that locker room.

Her January statement began, "I'm here to discuss the matter of a male being in the female locker room. Imagine this is you. You're in an 11-year-old girl coming into school, thinking that they're in a safe environment ..."

Her mother walked back her daughter's story at this week's school board meeting.

The girl gave the board a rhetorical question to consider after her friends described being in the locker room with a biological male to her, the mother said.

"She's not in that class," the mom said. "She didn't take PE that semester."

"I need my daughter protected," the woman said, adding that people who think her daughter didn't tell the truth are now criticizing her. The girl did not say anything false, however, what she said was falsely reported.

"Emotions are very high around this topic," Milleman said. "The most important thing is that we want all of our students to feel welcomed and supported and safe — all of them. You have every right to feel the way you do about it. I recognize there are a lot of opinions and concerns.

"That's why, as a public school, civil discourse is important. That's part of what makes this country so great, is to be able to have conversations with the public and try to solve problems.

"What's deeply concerning to me is that in our classrooms we expect our students to discuss and debate difficult topics in a civil manner. And we're not modeling that for our kids and it resulted in affecting the safety of our students and staff."

Authorities are continuing to investigate the origin of the bomb threat.

Editor's note: This is the first of two stories discussing students' needs and school responses when a transgender student requests accommodations. See the Tuesday edition of The Lebanon Reporter for a deeper look into the legal aspects of such cases, the safety precautions in place, and the options available for students.