Earlier this month, a 50-year-old mother in Yolo County, California, decided to make a statement at a local school board meeting about the school system's policy that allows junior high children to choose which locker room they use based on their gender identity. She wanted to show the board just how uncomfortable those little girls feel when a biological male steps into their most sacred space and strips down.
To do this, Beth Bourne, of Davis, took off her own clothing. She was wearing a two-piece bathing suit under her shirt and pants. The school board members were horrified.
Bourne, who is a well-known parents' rights activist and chair of Moms for Liberty in Yolo County, told a local news reporter that she just wanted to do something that would make her point.
"Today as I was preparing my comments, I thought, 'You know what? I'm gonna try something different.' I just thought I would show the school board, what does it feel like to change into your PE clothing," she said during the interview, adding, "I had a bathing suit on. Everything was covered. How can they expect the girls to feel comfortable doing that? So, I just thought I made a really good point."
The school board didn't seem to agree.
The board's vice president, Hiram Jackson, who was filling in for the president, Joe DiNunzio, immediately used the gavel to call for a recess. Bourne clamed the board was violating her First Amendment rights to speak, and after an eight-minute break, everyone returned, and Bourne, who was fully clothed again, received a second chance. But it wasn't without a warning from Jackson: "If you disrupt the meeting again, I will just gavel it in recess and you will be asked to leave."
Bourne asked if the fact that she had taken off her clothing to reveal her bathing suit was the reason they called her disruptive and then took off her shirt again, which led to another bang of the gavel and a second recess, this one lasting about half an hour. During that time, Bourne was ejected from the meeting, and someone called the police to escort her out.
Here is some video of the part of the interaction:
The next day, DiNunzio released a statement:
DJUSD board meetings are for the board to conduct its business in public. The board is committed to taking public comment during our meetings. As governed by DJUSD Board Bylaw 9323, the Board requires that public presentations to the Board comply with certain procedures. In cases where that conduct disrupts the normal course of business, the board chairperson may pause the meeting and request that those disrupting the meeting leave chambers.
The police report read: "Occurred on Russell Bl. ONS CAUSING A DISTURBANCE; STAFF REQ SHE BE REMOVED. YELLING AND DISROBING, CURRENTLY WEARING A SWIMSUIT. Disposition: Report Taken."
According to the Davis Enterprise, it wasn't clear at the time if she met the requirements for breaking Penal Code 40e, "a misdemeanor offense of willfully disturbing or breaking up a lawful public meeting or assembly."
When asked by a reporter if she felt she was being disruptive, Bourne said, "I don't think it was disruptive. What was disruptive was them interrupting my three minutes of free speech. That didn't stop the orderly flow of the meeting. I didn't prevent the next person from giving their three minutes of comment."
I have some thoughts on this myself. Typically, I'm not a big fan of people who do things like this to bring attention to themselves. However, in this case, I absolutely see what Bourn was getting at. She wanted to make the school board members as uncomfortable as they make these young girls who are forced to share their locker rooms with boys. Based on the reaction, mission accomplished, though I'm not sure it actually amounted to anything, which is a shame.
It's been a while since I was that age, but I'm trying to imagine being in middle school and our gym teachers telling the students they can use whatever locker room they feel like using. As a matter of fact, when I was that age, there were a couple of boys who actually got into big trouble, maybe even suspended, for sneaking into the girls' middle school locker room when we were changing. Ms. Bryson and Coach Dennis were not having it. These days, those boys can just claim they identify as girls, and their parents can sue. What is this upside down world?
Anyway, what are your thoughts on this? Did Bourne go overboard or did she make a point? Did the school board violate her rights to free speech?
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