Oregon Middle School Won’t Say if Student Who Attacked Multiple Girls is Transgender

Oregon attack
charliekirk11/X
Alana Mastrangelo

Hazelbrook Middle School in Tualatin, Oregon — where a student was filmed physically attacking a female student — will not say if the assailant is transgender.

Hazelbrook Middle School spokesperson Traci Rose told the Oregonian that the school district cannot comment on a student’s gender identity due to federal privacy laws.

On Thursday, another video of a second incident allegedly involving the same attacker was shared on social media.

Watch Below:

In this clip, the student can be seen shoving a girl to the ground, and when a third student tries to intervene, the assailant starts attacking her as well, throwing the girl to the ground and punching her multiple times.

District Superintendent Sue Rieke-Smith described the second incident as “horrific,” adding that it had already been addressed by Hazelbrook’s principal and staff.

“Now that [the second video] has come to this office’s attention, I too am concerned about a repeated pattern and all the pieces around that,” Rieke-Smith said. “I have to get more information from the school so I can understand that incident, how it was investigated and how it relates to the [other] one. That is the work that is ahead of me.”

The superintendent then defended the district’s progressive discipline policy, which stresses that students can learn from their mistakes, especially for minor behavior violations, including bullying and physical contact that is not considered assault.

“Zero tolerance is antithetical to our work as educators,” Rieke-Smith said. “If it is safe for the victim and the school community as a whole to extend an opportunity for the student to relearn different behavior, that is what we do.”

The video of this incident comes after another video of a separate incident went viral on social media last week.

The viral video showed the same student attacker, clad in girls’ clothing, dragging a smaller female classmate by her backpack in the hallway, pulling her to the ground, and then hitting the victim several times before shouting, “Talk shit again, bitch!”

Watch Below:

The female student can be heard in the video repeatedly saying through tears, “I didn’t do anything! I didn’t do anything!” and at another point, saying, “I can’t breathe.”

It remains unclear what led to the incident, but some on social media speculate that the attack was planned, given that students were already filming before it transpired.

The Tualatin Police Department later informed the public in a social media statement that authorities were aware of the incident but would not comment further on the matter due to the attack involving minors.

“We are aware of this incident and it is being investigated, however because it involves juveniles, we are unable to comment further,” the police department said.

Reduxx later confirmed that a petition was received by the Washington County Juvenile Court, and charges were pending in the case.

After the video went viral and the public became outraged over the footage, Hazelbrook Middle School evacuated its students and staff on Friday over threats of violence against the school community made on social media and in emails, the Oregonian reported.

On Thursday, the school board said that the students in the video had not consented to it being shared and that the clip prompted “false information and a focus and discourse on sexual identity.”

“These acts have contributed to the trauma individuals and families are already experiencing,” the statement read.

The identities of the two students involved in the incident have not been released to the public. While members of the public have declared that the student assailant is transgender, that remains unclear.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.