Mom stuns school board meeting as she STRIPS to protest transgender students using girls’ locker rooms
A California school board meeting descended into chaos when a local woman stripped in an effort to protest transgender students using girls’ locker rooms.
Beth Bourne, the chair of Moms for Liberty in Yolo County, pulled the stunt at the Davis Joint Unified School Board meeting on September 18, when she discussed the junior high school locker room policies.
She said she wanted the board members to feel the vulnerability she believes students face when classmates choose a locker room based on gender identity, noting that the district requires students to undress for physical education, ABC 10 reports.
‘So I’m just going to give you an idea what it looks like when I undress,’ the 50-year-old activist said, removing her shirt to expose a bikini top underneath.
‘This school district is saying that depending on a child’s transgender identity, that they can pick which bathroom they want,’ Bourne continued.
‘Right now, with this school district, we have children self-identifying into different bathrooms just based off,’ she said as she removed her pants – prompting one trustee to call out: ‘No, you cannot.’
But Bourne did not back down, firing back at the trustee: ‘I have my bathing suit on.
‘Excuse me, this is allowed,’ she insisted.
Beth Bourne, the chair of Moms for Liberty in Yolo County, stripped at the Davis Joint Unified School Board meeting on September 18
She spoke about the school’s locker room policy during the public comment period as she took off her shirt and pants, revealing a bikini underneath
Bourne pulled the stunt as she protested the district’s locker room policy that allows students to choose a locker room based on gender identity
At that point, Vice President Hiram Jackson – who was filling in for Board President Joe DiNunzio in leading the meeting – declared a recess.
‘I’ve got to finish my comments,’ Bourne yelled back.
‘You are violating my First Amendment right, I am putting on my -‘ she said, before her microphone was cut off.
When the meeting then reconvened, Bourne was given a second chance to talk, with Jackson inviting the now fully-clothed activist to finish her remarks.
‘If you disrupt the meeting again, I will just gavel it in recess and you will be asked to leave,’ he warned.
But Bourne feigned innocence, asking if she was allowed to wear her bathing suit and saying, ‘I’m not sure if that’s why I disrupted.’
Without an answer, Bourne once again took off her shirt as soon as Superintendent Matt Best instructed staff to restart the clock on her public remarks.
The flagrant display forced Jackson to strike the gavel again, even though Bourne argued: ‘This is a bathing suit top.’
Bourne (pictured) said she wanted the board members to feel the vulnerability she believes students face when classmates choose a locker room based on gender identity
A second recess then ensured for about half an hour, at which point Bourne was ejected and escorted out of the building by police, according to the Davis Enterprise.
In a statement, Board President DiNunzio explained that ‘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,’ he noted.
By 7.15pm, a police report was taken accusing Bourne of ‘disturbing the peace.’
Davis Police Lt. John Evans told the Davis Enterprise that cops took the report ‘to document the incident to see if it meets the elements for Penal Code 403,’ a misdemeanor offense of willfully disturbing or breaking up a lawful public meeting or assembly.
If it does and the school board decides it would like to pursue the matter, the case would likely be forwarded to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office for further review.
Trustee Cecilia Escamilla-Greenwald told the Vanguard that the board is now considering its next steps.
‘We are going to be meeting about this, about what to do in such situations, and we’re going to – I know that our superintendent is going to be speaking with counsel to see what can be done because it’s very inappropriate for anybody to be coming before the board and behaving in such a manner,’ she said.
She said she felt her First Amendment rights were violated when district officials called a recess during her remarks
But Bourne said she felt her First Amendment rights were violated, and is now consulting with an attorney.
She explained to CBS News that she felt the only way to get the board’s attention was to take the drastic measure, noting that she has gone in front of the board every month for the last three years to share her concerns about the locker room policies.
‘I wanted to give them more of a visual, what does it really look like changing and what would it feel like [to have] somebody of the opposite sex watching you change.’
Bourne said she now feels she got her point across.
‘If the adults don’t feel comfortable watching someone – and I’m a 50-year-old woman – how can they expect girls to feel comfortable doing that in the locker room?’ she asked, rhetorically.
‘The more open dialogue, open debate we can have on topics that are controversial, I think, we are going to end up having a safer society,’ she added.
