A Virginia high school student ran away from home and was sex-trafficked through several states — in part because his high school failed to tell the boy’s parents he identified as male and was relentlessly bullied for it, a lawsuit alleges.
“They stole my right to protect my daughter,” grandmother and adoptive mother Michele Blair told the Washington Examiner of Sage, now 16.
Sage – who had a troubled childhood and suffered from mental health issues – started attending Appomattox County High School aged 14 on August 10, 2021 where he began identifying as a boy, using male pronouns and male names and using the toilet man, according to a lawsuit filed by Michele in Virginia federal court last month.
But even though the school staff were actively involved in Sage’s desire to become a boy and knew about the repeated bullying he suffered, they “deliberately concealed” the gender change and did not involve his parents until it was too late and Sage ran away. She was then raped by multiple men over the course of months in four different states, the suit alleges.
Just one day into the school year on August 11, 2021, Sage began being brutally bullied by boys on her bus who said she looked like a boy, threatened to rape her until she “liked boys”, threatened to hold her out of the side window of the bus her hair unless she apologized and threatened to shoot her, letting them know where she lived, the lawsuit alleges.
Michele Blair is suing the Appomattox County School Board for allegedly failing to inform her that her daughter, Sage Blair, identifies as a boy and has been severely bullied because of it.WDBJ
The next day Sage meets with two guidance counselors telling them that he identifies as a boy and discusses the bus incident with them. But the staff did not disclose any information to Michele, court papers said.
Over the course of a month Sage continued to be bullied by boys in the men’s bathroom and in the hallway with her tormentors “touching her, threatening her with knife violence and rape, and pushing her against the hallway wall,” the suit alleges.
Counselors met with Sage eight days out of the first 12 of the school year but they didn’t tell Michele they were counseling her son about “gender discrepancy” and “affirming him as a boy” — while encouraging 100-pound girls to use boys’ bathrooms despite known threats from male students, the suit claims.
The bullying got so bad that other parents started reporting it to the school, court papers said.
It wasn’t until Aug. 25 that the counselor finally told Michele that Sage was using the men’s bathroom and cited only “safety concerns” — still failing to inform the parents of her son’s gender identity change and the bullying she faced because of it, the filing alleges.
The counselor told Michele she “noticed the self-inflicted injuries [Sage’s] body,” the newspaper claimed.
Michele Blair said she could have intervened to prevent Sage from running away and being sex-trafficked for months, if the school had implicated her.WDBJ
That same day Michele found a school hall pass with the name “Draco” on it, prompting Sage to tell her mother she identified as a boy and reveal the threats she had experienced and the fear she felt, the suit alleges.
Sage told Michele “she would not have used the men’s bathroom,” if her counselor had not “directed her to do so,” the suit alleges.
But the terrified teenager “had a psychotic breakdown and decided to run away,” that night, sneaking out through her bedroom window and leaving a note for her parents, the suit alleges.
“You did your job, Jesus loves you,” the note said, according to the suit.
The school is said to have known about the multiple bullying incidents Sage faced but did not tell Michele.Appomattox County High School
“I was afraid of what would happen if I stayed. Careful. There are bad people around here,” he said, signing the message with “All my love.”
Sage was “kidnapped and raped by an unknown adult male” who then took her to Washington DC leaving her with two other men who also drugged and raped her, the suit alleges.
The two men then took her to Maryland leaving her with a registered sex offender who locked her in a room after raping her and trafficked her to others, the suit alleges.
Sage was eventually rescued by federal authorities in Baltimore where “the nightmare should have ended,” Blair’s attorney Vernadette Broyles told the Washington Examiner.
But the government took custody of Sage after Baltimore public defender Aneesa Khan claimed her parents did not “adequately verify” Sage’s new gender identity, the suit alleges.
Sage was placed in a juvenile facility for boys “where he was again sexually assaulted, exposed to drugs, and denied medical and mental health care,” the suit alleges.
Sage had been missing for months and had been moved to several different states by a pedophile who drugged and raped her, the suit alleges.WDBJ
Sage escaped the facility on November 12, 2021 and was picked up by another pedophile who took him to Texas “where he was again raped, drugged, starved and tortured,” the suit alleges.
Ultimately, Sage was returned to Michele after authorities rescued him in Texas on Jan. 24, 2022, court papers allege.
As a result of what happened to her, Sage has been diagnosed with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder “for which she may require therapy for the rest of her life,” the suit says, noting the teenager has been in and out of hospitals. therapy since he returned home.
Another lawyer for Blair, Mary McAlister, told The Post: “All of this could have been prevented if Sage’s parents had been fully informed of her mental state and given the opportunity to provide the mental health counseling she needed when she began to question her identity.
“Instead both the school district and the public defender’s office decided they knew better than the parents. As a result of their arrogance, Sage has fallen victim many times.”
The family is now suing the Appomattox County School Board, two school counselors and Khan for unspecified damages.
Appomattox County Public Schools Superintendent Annette Bennett and Khan both did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
