That sounded a little fishy to Cristan Williams at the TransAdvocate.
Williams called the school district to do a little, you know, a little journalistic fact checking. It turns out the whole thing was fabricated by a parent who opposes transgender student rights and amplified by this ABC local.
The newspaper screen shot that appears on the ABC video does not show the papers name, and for a reason. The source that San Diego ABC affiliate reporter Michael Chen used for her aha gotcha moment is the right wing anti LGBT student newspaper "The College Fix".
Cristian calls it "fact checking". The school spokesperson calls it a "fabricated story".
I call it a blatant lie to get views for the station. If in fact ABC 10 did fact check they wouldn't have mentioned it. There wouldn't have been a story if the truth be known.
Transcript Los Angeles Unified School District: Office of communications Cristan: I’m calling to verify some information that I saw on the channel 10 news. LAUSD: I’m sorry, what information are you trying to verify? Cristan: Sure, sure, on channel 10 news it says that, at least on their website, that a LA high school student complained because a transgender kid was in the restroom peeking over stalls. And so that’s on the news and I just wanted to fact check that claim. Have you actually received complaints of transgender children climbing over stalls to look at other people as they’re in the stalls? LAUSD: I will have to check that for you. I believe that was fabricated, but give me one second. I need to verify. Hold on for a second. Cristan: Okay. LAUSD: Because it’s been a few days since we got that report. So hold on for me. Cristan: Sure. [On Hold] LAUSD: I apologize for the wait. They did get the complaint and it turned out that it was fabricated by one of the parents who opposes transgender students in schools. So it was an unfortunate situation, to have to put the students through, but it was fabricated.
