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Pennsylvania community outraged over transgender student with ‘hit list’ beating female student – Washington Examiner

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Pennsylvania community outraged over transgender student with ‘hit list’ beating female student – Washington Examiner


Parents and students of North Penn School District in North Wales, Pennsylvania, called out teachers and administrators after a transgender student, a biological male identifying as a female, brutally beat an unidentified middle school girl with a Stanley cup in the school cafeteria last week.

The victim was hit so severely that she was hospitalized due to a head injury.

Emily, a female student at Pennbrook Middle School and a friend of the victim, told the school board last Thursday that she was “second on his hit list” and recounted that she had begged for help from school officials numerous times before the attack.

“Wednesday morning, I went to the guidance counselor and told her, since I was second on the hit list, knowing that something was going to happen because there was a girl she was targeting every day at lunch. And they would go to the counselor and tell them every day that this is going to happen,” she said.

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The student continued, “And Wednesday, I went with two others, and each of us filled out a whole paper full of what’s going to happen and why it’s going to happen.”

She shared that after reporting their concerns, she received a warning to “watch her back” because “he is going to come for you and the other girl at lunch.”

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The student said she was “terrified” and told guidance counselor Colleen Fattori again about her concerns.

“I told Miss Fattori that that was happening and she said, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s not going to happen,’” the student claimed the counselor said

The girl then described witnessing a bloody attack by the transgender student attacking her friend in the cafeteria.

“I was in lunch and all of the sudden, I hear all of this screaming and everybody running. And I see Mel running in after somebody, and everyone’s screaming and running,” she described the beginning of the incident.

She said the attacker went after the victim who was “faced backwards” and didn’t see the student coming up behind her.

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“All of the sudden, you just hear these terrible, like, loud bangs of the Stanley bouncing off her head. And then you see Mel grabbing her hair and hitting her against the table, and just repeatedly hitting her with the Stanley,” the student told the school board.

She added, “There was blood going everywhere. I was at the table right behind and all you see is blood everywhere.”

The Pennbrook student shared that the seventh grade assailant repeatedly yelled, “I’m going to murder you” while hitting her friend’s head with the cup.

She grew tearful as she described seeing her friend’s blood being cleaned up off the tables and ground.

“We had to watch them take her out with blood dripping down her face and I will never forget that,” she cried.

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She said the attack went on in front of the students for 28 minutes. However, the school district claims that security cameras revealed that the incident lasted eight minutes. At the school board meeting, the student disputed the school’s claim of “eight minutes” because she “timed it.” Parents at the meeting demanded to see the security tape to verify the claims of the school.

The middle school student said she laid awake in her bed that night upset that they “shouldn’t have had to” witness the attack.

“I don’t get it. You could have stopped it. It was five hours from when I told you it was going to happen… it was five whole hours. I don’t get how you couldn’t have stopped that,” she demanded at the board meeting.

She said the guidance counselor had assured her that the attack was “not going to happen” because they had the trans-identifying student “under control,” to which the student pointedly said to the school board, “Clearly, you didn’t.”

A Pennbrook student’s mother, Alyssa Santiago, confirmed to a local radio show that the violent student was known to be a biological male and there were yearbook photos of the student before transitioning to a transgender female.

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The mother said the transgender student had been transferred to the school “two days” before the incident happened on Wednesday and by Tuesday, the students knew of a “hit list.”

“I would say by Tuesday lunch time, everybody in the school knew that my daughter was going to be ‘curb stomped’ or made to ‘bite the curb’ or jumped,” she said of the “school talk” prior to the attack.

Another mother told the school board that the transgender student “had multiple reports of violence” and she didn’t understand how that went unchecked.

“As a parent, your worst fear comes to light when you get that call from your kid crying, ‘Help, Mom! I’m scared. There’s blood everywhere!’ And you can’t get to them fast enough. And they hang up on you because teachers and staff are yelling at them to hang up their phones, not to call their parents,” she tearfully said to the board. “I told my child to always call me in an emergency no matter what.”

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The mother demanded that the board assure her that this student does not return to their school because this is “not the student’s first violent attack.”

She recounted how parents from numerous other local schools have dealt with this student’s “documented violence,” both in and out of school. The mother claimed that the student had violently attacked another student in an elementary school.

During the meeting, School Superintendent Todd Bauer called the attack “deeply disturbing.”

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“This was avoidable and the district truly failed to protect the students at Pennbrook,” a parent said. “What are we supposed to say to our children after this? How do I send him back to school?”

Nick Taylor, Pennbrook Middle School principal, sent a letter to parents saying that, “the safety of our students is of the utmost importance… I ask that parents speak with their children about the consequences of fighting.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Pennbrook parent Stephanie Palovcak clapped back at the principal’s comment.

“This isn’t a fight. This is an assault,” Palovcak said.

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Why a Pennsylvania blowout could be Josh Shapiro’s ticket to 2028

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Why a Pennsylvania blowout could be Josh Shapiro’s ticket to 2028


Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has never explicitly said he is interested in running for president.

He has not ruled it out either.

The former state attorney general on Tuesday night won the Democratic Party’s nomination for a second term, the first step toward a victory in November, when he is the clear favorite according to recent polling and projections from major forecasters. For Shapiro, a battleground-state victory, particularly by sizable margins, could prove to be a compelling opening argument for a 2028 presidential bid. 

“The bottom line is Pennsylvania is the ultimate swing state,” said Adrienne Elrod, a Democratic strategist who worked on former Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 campaign. “The fact that he has been able to be a really strong, bipartisan, effective governor in that state says a lot about his capabilities.”

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A Susquehanna Polling & Research survey in mid-March found Shapiro leading his GOP opponent, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, by a 22-point margin. He had near-total backing from Democrats, undecided voters leaned in his direction and he even won the support of 18% of Republicans. 

Berwood Yost, a longtime pollster at Franklin & Marshall College, noted that Shapiro is the most popular governor in Pennsylvania in more than two decades, though incumbents in the state routinely win re-election, sometimes by double digits.

For now, the governor says he is focused on his re-election bid, boosting Democrats in competitive House races and achieving a rare “trifecta” of Democratic control of state government. Republicans have controlled Pennsylvania’s state Senate since 1994, making a Democratic sweep of the statehouse a tall order. Even so, some political observers believe Democrats have a chance to flip the chamber this year.

If Democrats flip the Senate, it could add “a layer of credibility to his candidacy should he run” for president, Yost said. “That’s a real credential that might make people think: ‘Well, look, this is a person who can win in the kind of places where we need to win,’” he said, citing the purple, Trump-Biden-Trump states of Wisconsin and Michigan. “People also like winners.”

Shapiro would still have to overcome significant hurdles to win the Democratic presidential nomination, such as having low national name recognition and pressure from the party’s progressive wing. He remains in the single digits in most early polls of Democratic voters in a hypothetical 2028 primary field.

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In 2028, “Shapiro would be a very strong general election candidate for the Democrats,” said former Rep. Charlie Dent, a Republican who endorsed Shapiro in 2022. “His challenge will be the primary.”

Although he has avoided labels, Shapiro is widely considered a centrist. Criticism lobbed against him from progressives during his brief stint on Harris’ vice-presidential shortlist could resurface if he made a national campaign — including his support for Israel and for private-school vouchers.

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told MS NOW that Democratic voters are looking for “an outsider moment” in the next presidential race, pointing to the surging candidacies of figures including James Talarico in Texas and Graham Platner in Maine.

“I don’t know what the Josh Shapiro story is,” said Green. “It doesn’t seem like having five years in the governorship and then beginning from square one to tell a story to a national audience is lined up for success.”

Shapiro’s allies counter that his communications skills, approval ratings and his executive experience set him apart from a field heavy on legislators. They also say he is agile in front of reporters and in the face of tough questions.

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Shapiro would also have to court prominent donors and secure endorsements in what is likely to be a crowded field. Over the years, prominent billionaire donors, including former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman — have given to his state campaigns.



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Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania 14th Congressional District Primary 2026: Live Election Results

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Pennsylvania 14th Congressional District Primary 2026: Live Election Results


Senator Tommy Tuberville, widely favored to easily clear his primary and win the election to become Alabama’s next governor, just cast his vote at a church in Auburn. Tuberville, a football coach at Auburn University before he turned to politics, used football metaphors to illustrate his vision for the state. “It’s gonna be SEC recruiting all over again. I’ll be recruiting against Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana for manufacturing to come back to the state,” he said.



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Marking America’s 250th, tiny Pennsylvania town struggles for a future

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Marking America’s 250th, tiny Pennsylvania town struggles for a future






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