Schools

Petition Demands Prosecutor Drop Charges Against Transgender High School Student

By Bay City News Service

An online petition is fueling public outcry against charges filed against a transgender teen who got into a fight with three Hercules High School classmates after facing ongoing bullying at school.

Jewlyes Gutierrez, a 16-year-old sophomore who identifies as a transgender female, has been charged with misdemeanor battery in Contra Costa County Superior Court in connection with a fight involving three female classmates, according to a Change.org petition written by her sister, Valerie Poquiz.

The petition demands that the charges filed against the teen be dropped and had drawn more than 5,000 signatures as of Friday evening. The charges stem from a fight in a courtyard at the Hercules High campus on Nov. 15, which erupted after ongoing taunting and harassment from Gutierrez's peers, according to the girl's sister. "During one particular incident, a peer even spit gum in her face," Poquiz wrote. "After repeated events of bullying by this peer, Jewlyes sought help from the assistant principal in fear of her physical safety.

However, the issue was not properly addressed, no necessary action was taken by the administration." The bullying continued, and "Jewlyes was pushed over the edge," Poquiz said in the petition.

A cellphone video of the Nov. 15 fight distributed on the Internet shows hair-pulling and one of the students being pushed to the ground. All four students were suspended for the incident and have since apologized to one another, said Charles Ramsey, school board president of the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

The fight and behavior leading up to it also sparked lengthy school board discussions about the district's policies on bullying and harassment. On Jan. 29, the board is set to introduce updated policies meant to protect against gender-based and sexual harassment.    

With punishment to the students involved in the fight already dealt, no arrests made and positive policy changes in the works, Ramsey said he questions why the district attorney's office would file criminal charges against Gutierrez. "It just puzzles me when it seems like a school matter," he said. "How does this make our community safer?"

Senior Deputy District Attorney Dan Cabral, who heads the district attorney's juvenile prosecution division, said the charges arose from the Hercules Police Department's request for prosecution in the case. While he said he could not elaborate on specifics of the case, Cabral noted that the cellphone video of the fight that sparked the charges only show a portion of the incident.

The prosecutor stressed that charges in juvenile cases are meant not only to protect victims, but also to address the underlying causes behind any criminal behavior and prevent the minor from re-offending. "Our office finds bullying reprehensible and we find it to be truculent, and we absolutely are opposed to it," Cabral said.

On the other hand, he said, "I think if we turned a blind eye to things like this...I'm not sure that would send the right message to people who witness an altercation or to a victim."

Meanwhile, Ramsey and Gutierrez's sister say they believe the solution to bullying of the sort that led up to the Hercules High fight lies in educational programs that promote tolerance and awareness, rather than in the courts. "That's what kids are going to learn from -- not having a criminal misdemeanor charge," Ramsey said.


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