School Board Member Under Fire After Meeting About Trans Student

BATAVIA, IL — A Batavia District 101 school board member is under fire for a post about transgender students that some parents say felt like a threat. According to Daily Herald, board member John Dryden made the post on Facebook following a heated meeting about a 6th-grade transgender student who uses the girls locker room at school.

Tensions started to rise during the meeting, in which some parents reportedly suggested providing the transgender student with a separate changing room. Daily Herald reports that another parent said their daughter got scared of hearing what she described as a male voice in the locker room as the students and parents were reportedly not informed that the student would be in the locker room.

After the comments at the meeting, Dryden took to social media to express his displeasure with what he referred to as an "anti-transgender lynch mob" that prompted him to leave the room at one point. Dryden's post read:

"Sometimes School Board meetings are like Mr. Toad's wild ride. (Enjoy it on BATV.) You can watch me try really hard not to launch myself over the table and strangle an anti-transgender lynch mob. The Board Comments at the end are worth listening to. Cheers Batavia -- let's move ahead, not backwards ..."

According to Daily Herald, Karen Sullivan, a parent, filed a police report in the wake of the post. Sullivan told Daily Herald she felt Dryden's post was threatening to parents and that the Batavia school board had been rude to parents who expressed concerns during the meeting.

Following the criticism he's received, Dryden said in a statement, "In a disappointing turn of events, their bullying tactics are now directed at me. While I find this sort of thing distasteful, I would much rather their anger and angst be focused on me than directed towards an innocent middle school child."

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