High school students wanted a selfie in girl’s bathroom in response to a selfie taken by a student who is transitioning from female to male in the boy’s bathroom

What was supposed to be a protest against a selfie ended with a knee to the groin and a controversial expulsion.

On 4 April in the small city of North Pole, Alaska, a boy entered the girl’s bathroom at his high school, with a group of six friends following closely behind him.

The group planned to take a selfie in the girl’s bathroom. The photo was to be a protest of a selfie that was taken by a student at the school who is transitioning from female to male, and took a photo in the boy’s bathroom and posted it to social media.

“Tomorrow identify as a women and use the women’s bathroom if you want this shit to end,” read the caption of a Snapchat screenshot, which was later posted to Facebook. “Don’t do it to be an asshole we are doing it to boycott this bullshit.”

But when the first boy entered the bathroom, he was met by a female student who kneed him in the groin. The boys turned around and left the bathroom, according to a statement from the school.

The school has since expelled the girl indefinitely, according to her family, for the kick. The boys have been disciplined for attempting to enter the restroom but remain in school.

“There was not evidence that the male students were threatening any student or using any type of force toward other students,” wrote Karen Gaborick, the Fairbanks North Star Borough school district superintendent, in a statement released on Monday afternoon. “We do not advocate physical or psychological harm as a means to attain safety.”

The school maintains that it evaluates “use of force” for potential discipline whenever a student uses force against a staff member or fellow student.

The girl is appealing against her expulsion, and a hearing with the district is scheduled for later this week, the girl’s sister wrote in a statement to the Guardian. The girl’s family declined to further comment on the situation as she goes through the appeal process.

The expulsion has ignited a debate over whether it’s unfair punishment for the girl, given that she may have felt scared by the boys coming into the bathroom.

The Alaska state representative Tammie Wilson defended the female student. “If you ever feel threatened, for your safety, whatever force you think you have to go give, I will stand by you and so will your community,” said Wilson, who represents North Pole, at an unrelated press conference.

In recent years, bathrooms in schools and public spaces have been a battleground for transgender civil rights in the United States.

Multiple states have enacted or proposed laws that would require transgender people to use restrooms assigned to the gender assigned to them at birth, rather than their gender identity. Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska, about 370 miles south of North Pole, nearly passed an initiative that would have required transgender individuals to use incorrect bathrooms until voters struck it down last April.

Transgender students in the Fairbanks North Star Borough school district individually work with school counselors and the administration to determine how the school can accommodate them, including bathroom use, according to the school.