Word is circulating a KC-area boy used a high school girls’ locker room for months last school year, but the district isn’t saying one way or the other.
The alleged incident – involving perhaps dozens of locker room uses by a biological male at Gardner Edgerton High School on the Kansas side – may have occurred from the start of school in August until it was halted in November 2024, according to concerned parent Carrie Schmidt.
Schmidt won’t reveal her sources, but says she’s 99% certain it happened. If it did, it violates state law, presidential fiat and even district policy.
Whether it happened or not, the larger story has become Gardner Edgerton Unified School District 231’s refusal to even address the issue.
Indeed, Schmidt has shared numerous emails with The Heartlander in which she’s peppered Superintendent Dr. Brian Huff with questions – yet even now all she knows for sure is that video surveillance of the areas in question was likely destroyed after 30 days.
Likewise, the district declined any comment Wednesday when The Heartlander asked a spokesperson whether the incident happened, whether it’s been investigated and whether officials would brief parents on it.
Why wouldn’t the district be eager to allay parents’ concerns by either saying it didn’t happen or how it’s been properly addressed?
“I’m not shocked at all by their statement,” Schmidt says. “They want [The Heartlander] to go away. They do not want a story written on this at all. I don’t think they like it when they get put in the news. However, they need to stop doing stuff that is newsworthy like this.
“What are they scared of? Why are they so scared to tell the truth? Is it because they didn’t do an investigation? Is it because they didn’t let the entire building staff know what they’re supposed to do to make sure that students are using the proper facilities that are labeled ‘boys’ and ‘girls?”
One would at least think if it didn’t happen the district would just say so.
“Well, yeah, doesn’t that make the most sense?” says Schmidt. “‘Let’s stop the quote/unquote rumor; let’s nip that in the bud.’”
Schmidt says her certainty that it happened actually went up the more the district failed to answer her inquiries.
“I am going to ask questions because if I don’t, then the rumor just stays spreading and tensions get higher. I just want to find out the truth so that I can let people know, ‘No, I heard that this did not happen.’ And also for myself.
“This is a huge safety issue. And I don’t think the district is seeing it that way. I don’t think they did an investigation.”
Sadly, she says, if the district wanted the issue to go away it nearly succeeded.
“I mean, I found out like a year later. So, I mean, they did a good job of keeping it quiet for some time.”
In contrast, Schmidt notes that when a middle school student in the district pulled out a toy gun on a school bus Sept. 24, police were notified and a notice was sent to all the school’s parents the next day.
