Videos of a 13-year-old boy attacking female classmates went viral this week. He is trans-identifying and a biological male.

(Please note that the linked videos are graphic.)

Some people online have admonished the Oregon school district for failing to protect its students from a boy who pretends to be a girl. Good. The boy had a pattern of violent behavior that should’ve been addressed sooner. Many people, though, have exclusively blamed this 13-year-old. While his actions deserve punishment, we should be careful where we direct blame in cases like these. 

To employ compassion for all children harmed by radical ideology — the ones attacked by transgender people, and the ones attacked by transgender ideology — is important. And a child’s tendency toward violence or mental illness often arises not of their own volition.

Oregon’s Tigard-Tualatin School District does not have a zero-tolerance policy for violence. It affirms gender-confused students and as early as 2013 allowed students to use whichever bathroom they preferred, regardless of their biological sex. The school also lists comprehensive gender-equity resources and transgender-affirming guidance on its website.

People should ask if the school avoided disciplinary action because of the boy’s gender status, or if the boy was offered certain social protection because he presents as a girl, or if the school failed to press charges against him for fear of being labeled transphobic. They should also question what in this child’s life led him to violence and gender confusion. Children are responsible for their actions, but not for the failures of their parents, school districts, or local governments. 

School districts implement vast social-emotional learning programs and restorative-justice initiatives that equate “equity” with safety. Consider the districts that defunded school police and closed during Covid, and the nationwide increase in school violence seems to be the direct result of backward policy. 

We don’t know if this specific boy was counseled into transgenderism, or if he comes from a broken family. The videos themselves warrant some skepticism; they present as an inflammatory campaign, and viewers should question their origin. Why were so many students filming the attacks before they began? 

This much is clear: Violent behavior is usually the result of a damaged upbringing. Children now also face a society, school districts, and an internet that affirm biological nonsense with puberty blockers and gender therapy.

Younger generations don’t have license to be violent. But for years, we’ve convinced children that truth and morality are socially irrelevant. The kids aren’t alright, we say time and time again. Is it their fault, or ours?