UPDATE: Police say teen admits bathroom assault a lie

6:04pm

Police say a transgender teen, who reported that he was assaulted in his high school’s bathroom, has admitted to lying about the attack, KTVU reports.

According to the report, officers, who were investigating the attack as a hate crime, indicated they were unable to confirm the student’s story, including the time of the attack and the absence of injuries. During a later interview with a detective, police say, the teen said he made up the story.

The case has been closed, but police say they are looking into the possiblity of bringing charges against the teen.

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5:45pm

Police are investigating an incident in which a transgender student was physically and sexually assaulted in a bathroom of a suburban San Francisco public school as a hate crime, The Huffington Post reports.

According to the report, the 15-year-old student, who identifies as male, was in the boys’ bathroom at Hercules Middle/High School when three other boys shoved him into one of the stalls and began attacking him. Police say the attackers allegedly made unspecified discriminatory remarks during the attack. The student managed to get to a health centre on his own after the attack, police add.

The Post notes that the West Contra Costa Unified School District to which the school belongs allows transgender students to use facilities that accord with their gender identity.

The report notes that the attack on the 15-year-old is the first against a transgender student that has been made public since Governor Jerry Brown signed off on a California measure, the School Success and Opportunity Act, which grants students the ability to access sports teams, locker rooms and other facilities that correspond with the gender with which they identify.

Opponents of the measure launched an unsuccessful petition bid to have the law put to the electorate, falling 17,726 valid signatures short of the required 504,760 needed to force a referendum onto the November 2014 ballot. But Privacy for All Students (PFAS), the coalition at the forefront of the drive to challenge the law, has said the fight is not over and is calling for a check of the signatures that were rejected.

A spokesperson for the West Contra Costa district says school officials feel the campaign to put the law to a referendum played a part in stoking fears that could have precipitated the attack on the Hercules student.

But Carolyn Laub, of the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, disagrees with that assessment, saying that the attack occurred at a school that has historically had safety problems and is not related to the fight to overturn the law.

Another transgender student, who identifies as female and who complained about being harassed at the same school, fought with three other girls in the fall and was charged with misdemeanour battery.