Natalie Cline, a Utah school board official, suggested on social media that a 16-year-old female basketball player was transgender, drawing abuse toward the girl.
A Utah State Board of Education member was stripped of her committee assignments and asked to resign this week after she questioned the gender of a high school basketball player in a Facebook post.
Natalie Cline, the board member, posted a flyer for a high school basketball team in Salt Lake County on Feb. 6 with the caption “Girls’ basketball,” suggesting that one of the girls featured in the image was not female. The post, which was reported on by KSL TV, a television channel in Salt Lake City, has since been deleted.
The board said Wednesday that, after an investigation, it had decided to censure Ms. Cline, request her resignation and ban her from attending board committee meetings for failing to respect the privacy of students, including portraying them publicly in a negative light. The Utah Legislature passed a resolution on Thursday against Ms. Cline for her “abhorrent actions” that had led to “relentless harassment and bullying, including threats of violence” of a student.
The parents of the child who was targeted in the post, Al and Rachel van der Beek, wrote in an editorial in The Salt Lake Tribune on Thursday that Ms. Cline had exposed their 16-year-old daughter to “baseless and cruel public ridicule.”
Ms. Cline’s social media post led to “a barrage of hateful and despicable comments that were directed at our daughter that lasted for more than 16 hours,” Mr. and Ms. van der Beek wrote. “It was one of the most painful things we’ve had to endure as we read comment after comment of unwarranted judgment, ignorance and hate by adults and parents who were hiding behind their computers bullying our child.” Ms. Cline’s behavior would be “unjustifiable” even if it had been based in fact, they wrote, though it was not.
Mr. and Ms. van der Beek wrote that their daughter was “naturally strong and athletic and has worked really hard to be the lead scorer for her team this year.”
