A North Carolina school board voted to allow high school students to carry pepper spray at school for protection, but one board member went a step further and suggested the defense mechanism could help protect female students from transgender students should the state’s “bathroom bill” be overturned.
“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,” Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education member Chuck Hughes said at a meeting, according to the Salisbury Post.
North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill” prevents transgender individuals from using the bathroom of their choice.
The Justice Department and the state of North Carolina are now embroiled in dueling lawsuits over the law, as the federal government says it violates federal civil rights laws.
Students in the school system can now carry mace, pepper sprays or another type of defensive spray starting in the 2016-2017 school year.
