A Wisconsin mother is defending her son after he was accused of sexual harassment for failing to use a classmate’s preferred pronouns of they and them. Now, Rosemary Rabidoux wants the world to know that she does not think her son Bradon is a sexual deviant despite being part of a group of three middle school boys who all ganged up on the non-binary classmate and refused to honor their request to use non-binary pronouns.
Bradon and the other boys refused to honor the classmate’s request to refer to them as they and them. Instead, Bradon continued to refer to the other student as “she” and “her,” even though it was made abundantly clear that the classmate did not want to be identified as a girl.
Now, the school district is taking action against Bradon and the other boys because what they did constitutes sexual harassment. The school district has levied a complaint against the gang of boys by filing a Title IX complaint in which the district officially accuses the boys of sexual harassment for denying the non-binary classmate their request.
However, Rosemary believes her son is an angel and does not deserve to be labeled a predator despite his lack of empathy when dealing with the non-binary classmate. Although she thinks the school district is going too far, the Kiel School District has a firm stance when it comes to people harassing other classmates. What Bradon and the other middle school boys did constitutes bullying.
“The KASD prohibits all forms of bullying and harassment in accordance with all laws, including Title IX,” adding that it will “continue to support ALL students regardless of sex (including transgender status, change of sex or gender identity).”
Meanwhile, Rosemary does not understand why her son has been identified as a sexual harasser.
“(The investigating principal) said he’s being allegedly charged with sexual harassment for not using proper pronouns. I thought it wasn’t real! I thought this has got to be a gag, a joke — one has nothing to do with the other,” Rosemary Rabidoux said to ABC4.
Bradon and the other bullies targeted the non-binary student in an incident last month. When his mother learned about what her son had done, she rushed to defend her son instead of listening to the teachers and using this as an opportunity to teach Bradon how to respect other people.
“I immediately went into shock! I’m thinking, ‘sexual harassment?’ That’s rape, that’s inappropriate touching, that’s incest,” Rabidoux ranted. “What has my son done? She had been screaming at one of Braden’s friends to use proper pronouns, calling him a profanity, and this friend is very soft-spoken and kind of just sunk down into his chair.”
Rosemary defended her son as soon as someone asked if they were anti-LGBTQ.
“Not at all. Not at all! My children have been raised to love everybody equally,” she said. Nevertheless, her son does not understand why it is important to use someone’s preferred pronouns.