A Wisconsin high school has closed its gender-neutral bathroom after an 18-year-old student was arrested for fourth-degree sexual assault, child enticement and exposing his genitals to a child inside the facility.
Austin Sauer, a student at Rhinelander High School, was arrested last week, according to the Oneida County Sheriff's Office, WSAW-TV reported.
As per Wisconsin law, a fourth-degree sexual assault involves non-penetrative sexual contact with a person without his or her consent.
Media reports have not identified the sex of the minor victim, but the child is likely a girl.
Captain Terri Hook from the Sheriff's office said that the gender-neutral bathroom has now been closed, and that the school hadn’t sent a message to parents because it was an isolated incident and the student had been removed from the school.
The sheriff's office also said that the accused had not been charged, and the investigation was still underway.
In 2017, the conservative Family Research Council compiled a list of 21 incidents of men assaulting or violating women's privacy in public bathrooms. The group warned that nondiscrimination laws that allow people to go into bathrooms based on their gender identity, rather than their birth sex, are giving sexual predators the opportunity to exploit the circumstances and commit voyeurism and sexual assault.
In December 2018, a Wisconsin judge ruled that the town of De Pere must provide churches and religious organizations exemptions to an LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance that among other things would have required them to allow access to bathrooms on the basis of a person’s gender identity.
Brown County Judge William Atkinson ruled that the ordinance barring employment, housing and public accommodation discrimination that protects on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation cannot be applied to five churches and the parent company of a local Christian radio station.
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