ASHEVILLE, NC – A North Carolina mother is calling out her local high school after her teenage daughter was forced to share the girls’ bathroom with a male. Independent Women Features (IW Features), the grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm of Independent Women, is exclusively publishing her story as the state legislature prepares to vote on a bill that would define “woman” in law and allows the state to protect single-sex spaces. 

Anna Larson (name changed to protect her identity), the mother of two teenage daughters at A.C. Reynolds High School in Asheville, North Carolina, told IW Features that her 15-year-old daughter was forced to share a school women’s bathroom with a male student in November 2024.

Larson brought her concerns to the school board in December. According to Larson, the principal at A.C. Reynolds High School contacted her following the meeting and voiced support for her efforts to reverse school policy regarding transgender-identified males in girls-only spaces. 

Despite this support, however, Larson was informed that her daughters, and any other female student who didn’t want to share the women’s bathroom with a man, could use a single-stall facility on the other side of the school due to the district’s policies. 

“There’s one single-stall bathroom in the back hallway that they could use, but we come to find out this one additional bathroom is locked,” Larson told IW Features. 

“The girls would have to get the key from the choral instructor to be able to go in there and go to the bathroom, and there’s no way they could make it to class. I mean, there’s just absolutely no way that they could get the key, go to the bathroom, return the key, and get to class. It’s just a ridiculous ‘accommodation,’” Larson added.

The alternative was not only impractical—it was humiliating.

A.C. Reynolds High School is part of Buncombe County Schools, which describes discrimination as “either intentional or unintentional” and posits that, “transgender and gender nonconforming students have the ability, as do all students, to discuss and express their gender identity and expression.” 

Andrea Mew, IW Features managing editor, said: “Girls shouldn’t have to sacrifice their privacy just to get an education. In North Carolina, young women are being told if they don’t want to share a bathroom with boys, the burden is on them to find a key, trek across campus, and miss class. That’s not providing accommodation, that’s offering up punishment and discrimination for being female. House Bill 805 is a necessary step toward restoring biological truth to law, benefiting North Carolina’s daughters. It’s time that leaders affirm what used to be common sense: there are two sexes, and women deserve boundaries that aren’t up for debate.”

Read Larson’s story here: Freshman Girls Forced To Use School Bathroom With Biological Male As Battle Heats Up Over North Carolina Transgender Bill  

North Carolina is poised to adopt legislation that will define “woman” and “man” in law. On July 3, 2025, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein vetoed HB 805, which would help protect women’s spaces by codifying the definitions of female and male terms in state law. The vote to override the veto is scheduled for Tuesday, July 29. The state legislature has the opportunity to stand with North Carolina women and girls. The bill has bipartisan support, and Larson’s story is expected to add fresh urgency to the debate. 

“Anna’s story is one that has become far too common in age where the safety and privacy of women and girls is sacrificed on the altar of gender ideology,” said Sarah Wilder, IW Features contributor and author of Larson’s profile. “Anna’s daughters are learning the hard way that the institutions that are supposed to protect them fall woefully short of their duties. Their mother is an inspiring example of what can happen when everyday American men and women step in and do the unpopular work that activists, legislators, governors, and school administrators seem unwilling to do.”

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