Laura Butterbrodt

The Watertown Public Opinion

February 22, 2020

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Watertown was the focus of a Feb. 10 article in the Washington Post about South Dakota House Bill 1057 and the transgender activism that is growing in the state.

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The article, “In South Dakota, a budding transgender movement is taking on conservative lawmakers — and winning” by Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, featured voices of activists in Pierre protesting Rep. Fred Deutsch’s HB 1057 that would make it illegal for medical practitioners to treat transgender youth with surgery or hormone blockers. Deutsch is a Republican from Florence.

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One of those voices was 16-year-old Meredith of Watertown, whose last name has been withheld in order to avoid potential harassment. She said she was bullied by peers in the Watertown School District in 2017 and 2018 after coming out as a lesbian and holding hands with her girlfriend at school. In one instance, she said, a student threatened her over the social media website Tumblr, stating, “I will rape the gay out of you.”

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Meredith said when her parents met with the principal about the bullying, they were told that “she wouldn’t have these problems if she didn’t blather about her sexuality,” according to the Post article.

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Immediately after that meeting, Meredith’s parents decided to pull her from school in Watertown.

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“I do wonder if he thought he was protecting them, but instead he was actually inflating the situation and made it worse,” Meredith’s mother Jennifer told The Public Opinion of the school meeting with a principal.

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Meredith was briefly enrolled at another school in the area, but is now home-schooled. She said the online bullying followed her to the other district.

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The Watertown School District cannot disclose the details of private meetings between principals, students and parents, but Superintendent Jeff Danielsen said the case of bullying was treated under regular disciplinary guidelines. Even though the threat was made via social media and not on school grounds, it was still disciplined through the school because it affected student safety and impaired the learning environment.

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“We don’t tolerate students being teased or persecuted in any way, and it’s our job to try to protect them in the best way we can,” Danielsen said.

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Meredith said shortly after she left the Watertown district, a close friend of hers who was nonbinary and pansexual died by suicide after encountering many of the same bullies.

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“I felt really sad and guilty like I had abandoned them and left them behind, so I started a pin project to give pins to safe administrators and adults to identify themselves as a safe person to ‘blather’ to,” Meredith wrote in an email to The Public Opinion.

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The pins read “Operation Blather” and are meant to be worn by people to show that they will accept and stand up for one another.

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On Operation Blather’s Facebook page, an introduction written by Meredith reads, “When I was in Kindergarten, my teacher wrote on my report card ‘Meredith is a bright child, but she tends to blather.’”

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Later in the post, she describes the incident at the Watertown district, writing, “I’m not entirely sure about what all went on in that meeting. What I do know is that (my parents) weren’t satisfied that I was going to be properly protected, so they pulled me out and transferred me to a different district.”

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Danielsen said that because Meredith was withdrawn from the school district the day of the meeting and no formal complaint against the principal was ever made, the only sure thing about what happened in the meeting is that the family was not happy with the way the school handled the situation.

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Meredith said although she shared this story about her experience to a national publication, she was not trying to shame the school.

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“My story isn’t about making anyone look bad or turning anyone into a villain,” she said. “My story is about teaching people to understand each other and to be kind and to recognize a student’s identity is not something they can turn off to avoid bullies.”

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Since starting home-schooling, Meredith said her mental health has improved and she is on track to finish high school early.

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“I feel stronger and better because I was allowed to be me,” she said.

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Jennifer said the times are changing, and children are now proud to be true to themselves. She said the problem isn’t with who the kids are, but the way they are perceived by others for being open about their sexual orientation and identity.

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“They shouldn’t be told to hide who they are,” Jennifer said. “It’s not protecting them — it pushes them into a hole and makes them feel like they should be ashamed.”

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Looking back on the situation, Meredith believes the principal at her school was trying to help her avoid being bullied by not drawing attention to herself. But, she said, the principal was just misguided with his advice.

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“...Being gay or trans isn’t the same as deciding to dye your hair neon green or wear a hamburger costume to school. Being gay or trans is a part of someone’s identity,” Meredith said in her email to The Public Opinion. “I am gay just like I have blue eyes. My friend was nonbinary just like they were tall. If someone was being made fun of for having blonde hair, you wouldn’t tell them to dye it black. If someone said they were going to cut off someone’s freckles, you wouldn’t tell their victim to wear more makeup.”

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HB 1057 was sent to the 41st day on Feb. 10 by a 5-2 vote from the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, effectively killing it.