On April 30th of 2016, the Warwick Watch Facebook page posted a status attempting to infringe the rights of a 15-year-old transgender girl. (archived here) Many, many of the cis female students of Pilgrim have expressed that they felt no discomfort over the Transgender student using the bathroom of her identified gender. However, this didn't stop many bigoted comments from grown adults on the page-- many going so far as to say that the student "deserved" it because the student felt the need to defend herself on the page.

It is one thing to express your opinion on a group of people; it is another matter to single out and target an underage individual on a public forum. By outing the Transgender girl and putting down her school on a widely-viewed post, it is not only humiliating, but putting the Transgender girl in danger. It is a statistical fact that Transgender women are targets of violence and have a higher rate of being victims of hate crimes. It is also reported that Transgender teenagers have a higher rate of depression and completed suicides; even if they are in supportive households. Transgender people have a high rate of cyber violence, as well. Full-on adults have the capability to put this teenager in a depression, or make her a victim of a hate-crime.

The admin of the page has publicly identified herself as Stacia Huyler; she also revealed that she is running for mayor of Warwick. (archived here) Although it is not possible to make her stop running for political power, we are calling for Facebook to take down Warwick Watch. This will ensure the Transgender girl's safety, as well as sending a message to Pilgrim: to not back down, and make sure all students of the school, trans or cis, are happy.

Thank you for reading!