Police investigate alleged attack on transgender student at Hopkins High

Students and LGBTQ activists gathered outside Hopkins High School on Wednesday to express their support for a 16-year-old transgender student who was allegedly attacked at school last week.

Police confirmed that they are investigating the incident “as a possible hate crime.” However, “few details are still known because the case was not reported to police until hours after the alleged attack,” said a spokesman for the Minnetonka Police Department, which patrols Hopkins.

In a letter to families on Tuesday, Hopkins High School Principal Crystal Ballard said the school administration could not comment until the police investigation was complete.

“While we are aware that allegations of a hate crime have surfaced in connection with this incident, it is important to note that the incident has not been officially classified as a hate crime as the details are still under investigation,” Ballard wrote.

The student’s family believes the incident was motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias.

In a phone conversation before the rally, mother Ashley Sovereign told MPR News that her child was punched in the face by another student after being confronted by several students for using the boys’ restroom when the all-gender restroom was occupied.

Sovereign said her child suffered a concussion and a broken jaw and teeth. She added that her teen did not know the student who threw the punch and that the students used an anti-LGBTQ+ slur before the punch. Sovereign said the family is frustrated by the district’s “radio silence” about the incident.

In an email, a spokesperson for Hopkins Public Schools said police were being used to de-escalate the situation and the decision on whether to press charges would be made by the family. They added that according to the school’s disciplinary policy, anyone involved in a fight will be immediately suspended.

Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, the state’s first out transgender legislator, was at the rally Wednesday. Finke called it “a deeply pervasive and disturbing pattern in the United States that our transgender community is the target of attacks, especially young people, and especially when we go to the bathroom. The simplest act a human being can perform is to just pee in peace.”