APPOMATTOX COUNTY, VIRGINIA: Michelle Blair, the mother of a teenage girl named Sage Blair has filed a lawsuit against the Appomattox County School Board and district staff.
Michelle alleges that the school district withheld crucial information about her daughter's gender identity, leading to severe bullying and ultimately a traumatic chain of events.
Sage had started identifying as a male at school but soon after he faced both "verbal" and "physical" assaults, as well as "threats of rape by the male classmates.
"Despite this, the school encouraged her to use the boys' bathroom," she said.
Michelle Blair's desperate battle for daughter's Sage Blair well-being
Michele and Roger Blair, along with Sage's biological grandparents, formally adopted her during her toddler years.
Sage began therapy at age 14 to manage her depression while also attending a new high school in central Virginia.
According to Sage's parents, she encountered a variety of people in this school environment, including those who identified as "emos," "goths," and various expressions of sexuality and gender.
Michelle had previously informed the school about her daughter's history of mental health issues, including depression, eating disorders, self-harm, and hallucinations.
Despite this vital information, the school decided to support Sage's social transition without involving her parents.
It wasn't until Sage's parents stumbled upon a hall pass with the name "Draco," Sage's chosen name at school, that they discovered the truth about their child's situation.
The Child & Parent Rights Campaign, representing Michelle, argues that the school's failure to disclose Sage's gender identity "deprived" Michelle of her fundamental parental rights, including making "educational and mental health decisions" for her child, Daily Mail reports.
Tragically, the consequences of this withholding of information became painfully evident when Sage ran away from home due to the relentless bullying and harassment he faced at school.
Reports suggest that Sage first fled the night his parents discovered the hall pass with the name "Draco" on it.
"The school officials were encouraging her to use the boys' bathroom, even though they knew she was being threatened with sexual assault, so she perceived herself that she wasn't safe and she runs away from home," said Broyles.
"She runs into the arms of a waiting pedophile, who encounters her, rapes her, traffics her with two other men, and takes her across state lines into Washington, DC, and then ultimately into Maryland," reveals Broyles.
Sage Blair's ongoing ordeal within the juvenile justice system
Sage was eventually rescued by FBI agents in Maryland, marking what should have been the end of his nightmare.
However, the Baltimore juvenile court system intervened, assuming custody of Sage based on the recommendation of Aneesa Khan, a public defender in the area.
Khan argued that Sage's parents were not "sufficiently affirming" of his new identity and fabricated a "story of abuse and neglect" to convince a judge to keep Sage in custody.
While in state custody, Sage was placed in a juvenile facility for young men, "where she was again sexually assaulted, exposed to drugs, and denied medical and mental health care," the suit claims.
The unimaginable continued when Sage ran away from the male facility in fear for his safety, only to be picked up by another sex trafficker who brought him to Texas, where he endured further abuse.
Law enforcement in Texas eventually rescued Sage and notified his mother, who brought him back to Virginia.
Since his return, Sage has undergone intensive therapy to address the multiple incidents of extreme trauma he endured, and he was diagnosed with complex PTSD.
Vernadette Broyles, Michelle's attorney, argues that Sage's harrowing experiences are a direct result of the school's failure to involve parents in a child's transition process.
"It is frankly just cruel and irresponsible for school officials to be encouraging confusion, gender confusion in particularly traumatized young girls with histories of mental health."
Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has taken steps to address such issues, implementing new state guidance that now requires schools to inform parents if their child is socially transitioning.
This change in policy seeks to prevent situations like Sage's traumatic experience from happening in the future.
