North Carolina School Board Official Says Students Can Use Mace in Bathrooms, Cites Trans Bill

A school board official cited North Carolina's trans bathroom bill in allowing students to use mace.

Image via Sylvar

Starting in the fall, some North Carolina high school students will be able to carry mace, pepper spray, and other defensive sprays on campus in order to protect themselves. The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education voted on Monday to overturn a previous rule that restricted such sprays, so students have an added means of defense, especially when going to the bathroom. 

The Board of Education meeting carried on a discussion that began in April and pertained to if two rules in the student handbook restricting defensive sprays and razor blades should be rewritten to allow those items on campus, Salisbury Post reported. 

Board member Chuck Hughes said, "Depending on how the courts rule on the bathroom issues, it may be a pretty valuable tool to have on the female students if they go to the bathroom, not knowing who may come in."

The board eventually ruled to amend the language prohibiting defensive sprays from high school campuses. Its ruling comes in the wake of a contentious battle over the state's discriminatory House Bill 2.

Public Information Officer Rita Foil stated in an email to Complex that the meeting was about discussing legal and illegal items on school campuses. "There was no board discussion about HB2. An individual board member made a comment that is not discussed or adopted by the full board," Foil said.  

On Monday, North Carolina sued the U.S. Justice Department after the agency found the state violated Title IX. The U.S. Justice Department returned in kind with its own lawsuit against the state for failing to change the law. "This is about the dignity and respect we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we, as a people and as a country, have enacted to protect them—indeed, to protect all of us," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a press conference about the lawsuit.

UPDATED 4:11p.m. ET: This post has been updated with a comment from Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education.

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