Virginia mother praises Trump for shining ‘light’ on daughter’s plight at SOTU
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The mother of a Virginia girl praised President Donald Trump for shining a “light” on her daughter’s case during his State of the Union address and vowed to continue her lawsuit against the school she accused of secretly changing her child without parental consent.
“It meant the world. It was surreal,” said Michele Blair, Sage Blair’s mother on Wednesday as she reflected on the president’s words.
Sage was recognized as one of Trump’s guests during his address to Congress, where he detailed his story in front of a national audience.
The president said Sage was 14 when school officials in Virginia “wanted to reassign him,” treating him as a boy and allegedly hiding it from his parents.
Sage Blair and her mother, Michele Blair, stand in the gallery as President Trump delivers his State of the Union address on Feb. 24 after highlighting her case involving alleged transgender policies at the school. (Pool)
Trump described how Sage ran away from home, was placed in an all-boys state center after a judge’s decision and later returned to his family. He praised her resilience, calling her a “proud and amazing young woman” who now has a full scholarship to Liberty University.
“I’m so grateful that light has been shown on this dark topic because it happens to so many kids like Sage,” Blair told Carley Shimkus.
“See [the school] the fact that… he wanted to express himself as a boy, and he was being bullied in a horrible way… If things had been different, and they called me and brought me and told me about the bullying, I would have saved him nightmares for the rest of his life,” he added.
Attorney Vernadette Broyles alleges that after escaping, Sage was sex-trafficked in several states before being found by law enforcement in Texas and later extradited to Maryland.
“It was a nightmare that… I don’t know if he’ll ever get over it,” Blair told “Fox & Friends First.”
FORMER SJSU STAR BROOKE SLUSSER FURIOUS AFTER TRUMP ADMIN DECIDES ON SCHOOL’S FAILED TITLE IX.
President Trump delivers the State of the Union address in the House chamber of the US Capitol on February 24 in Washington, DC. (Nathan Howard/Reuters)
Broyles said the family’s case is pending in federal court.
“We have a Title IX lawsuit pending right now in the Western District of Federal Court in Virginia on behalf of Sage himself,” he said.
He said the complaint is being amended to include a free religion claim, saying Michele Blair’s parental rights to direct her daughter’s religious upbringing were violated.
“This is a very broken young woman who has been kept in the system,” Broyles said.
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“So these are the potential consequences, the harm, when schools keep secrets from loving parents.”
Fox News reached out to Appomattox County Public Schools for a statement but did not receive a response.
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