The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education in North Carolina voted on Monday to allow students to carry pepper spray in schools beginning next fall.
Why on earth would they do that?
Well, at least one member of the board believes pepper spray will be an effective deterrent against the non-existent threat of transgender predators.
A North Carolina school system has adopted a policy allowing high school students to carry pepper spray this fall, a policy one board member said may be useful for students who encounter transgender classmates in the bathroom.
Board member Chuck Hughes said using the sprays was purely defensive, and he referenced the North Carolina law that limits LGBT rights, saying such sprays could help female students if they go to the bathroom and don't know who's coming in after them.
In addition to a myriad of other terrible things, HB2 can now be credited for inspiring schools to allow the use of pepper spray against transgender students for no other reason than simply existing.
We may think of the legal and constitutional ramifications of HB2 as a largely federal matter now that the Department of Justice has taken action, but if this actually happens -- if a transgender student is attacked with pepper spray -- there will be a whole new legal battle that emerges in the form of a lawsuit against this school system.
This escalation does not come from transgender children, it comes from the people who say transgender children are a threat.