Virginia mother praises Trump for shining ‘a light’ on daughter’s ordeal at SOTU
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The mother of a Virginia teenager praised President Donald Trump for shedding “light” on her daughter’s case during his State of the Union address and vowed to press ahead with her lawsuit against the school she accuses of secretly socially passing her child without parental consent.
“It meant the world. It was so surreal,” Sage Blair’s mother, Michele Blair, said Wednesday as she reflected on the president’s words.
Sage was recognized as one of Trump’s guests during his speech to Congress, detailing Trump’s story before a national audience.
The president said Sage was 14 when school officials in Virginia “tried to socially transition her to a new gender,” treated her as a boy, and allegedly hid it from her family.
Sage Blair and her mother, Michele Blair, stand in the gallery after President Trump’s State of the Union address on February 24, highlighting the lawsuit over alleged gender transition at the school. (Swimming pool)
Trump described how Sage ran away from home, was placed in an all-male government facility upon a judge’s order, and was later returned to her family. He praised her resilience and called her a “proud and wonderful young woman” who currently has a full scholarship to Liberty University.
“I’m so grateful that light is being shed on this dark issue because it happens to so many kids like Sage,” Blair told Carley Shimkus.
“Them [the school] “He glorified the fact that he wanted to identify as male and was bullied terribly… If things had been different and they had called me and brought me in and told me about the bullying, I could have saved him from a lifetime of nightmares,” she added.
Attorney Vernadette Broyles claimed that after escaping, Sage was sex trafficked in multiple states, then rescued by law enforcement in Texas and later transported to Maryland.
“It’s been a nightmare… I don’t know if it’s going to get any further than that,” Blair told “Fox & Friends First.”
FORMER SJSU STAR BROOKE SLUSSER’S FAMILY SAYS TRUMP ADMIN’S SCHOOL IX. HE REACTED AFTER STATEMENT THAT THE TITLE WAS VIOLATED
President Trump will deliver his State of the Union address in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 24 (Nathan Howard/Reuters)
Broyles said the family’s legal battle is currently ongoing in federal court.
“We currently have a Title IX claim pending on behalf of Sage in the Western District of Federal Court in Virginia,” he said.
He said the complaint was amended to include a claim of free religious exercise, alleging that Michele Blair’s parental rights to direct her daughter’s religious education were violated.
“This is a deeply broken young woman held in the system,” Broyles said.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION
“So these are the harms that can occur when schools keep secrets from loving parents.”
Fox News previously reached out to Appomattox County Public Schools for a statement but did not receive a response.
Related Article
