Kelowna's Apple Bowl was the site of what some consider a hate crime last week.

(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)

It’s come to the point where security is needed to protect children at school events in Kelowna, says the mother of one of the two children verbally attacked last week at a track and field competition at the Apple Bowl.

Two Grade 4 girls were accused of being boys by the grandfather of a competitor.

“She was shaking and sobbing,” Heidi Star, the mother of one of the nine-year-old girls, told iNFOnews.ca today, June 12. “All the kids that were there went ‘this is gross. this is rude, why would he be doing this?' The other child he pointed out just ran away altogether.”

The man has now been banned from all School District 23 property and events, according to school superintendent Kevin Kaardal.

READ MORE: Kelowna’s LGBTQ+ community looking for love not hate as Pride Week wraps up

The event included all schools in the region but the attacker was not from a School District 23 school, which means he could have been from a private or French school, Kaardal said.

Heidi’s daughter was lined up for the Grade 4 girls shot put Thursday, June 8, event with the man’s granddaughter standing behind her.

“He stopped the entire event, declaring that my daughter was a boy,” Star posted on Facebook, which she told iNFOnews.ca was an accurate retelling of the incident. “My daughter is a girl, was born female, and uses she/her pronouns. She has a pixie cut. (The man) proceeded to say that, if my daughter was not a boy, then she was definitely trans and should be disqualified from competing.

“In the meantime, his wife was shouting that I was a genital mutilator, a groomer and a pedophile. (The man) then demanded that I provide a certificate proving my daughter was born female. My daughter was so shaken up. She has never witnessed this kind of hate before.”

Organizers moved the event to another shot put pit at the Apple Bowl. The man followed, crossed his arms on his chest and stared at them. He refused to leave when teachers told him to go.

Star said she is a gay woman, her daughter has had a transgender coach and theatre teacher, and Star’s brother has a transgender child.

“She (her daughter) completely understands the spectrum of gender and of diversity,” Star said. “She’s always understood and never had concerns with that."

Star did not want her daughter’s name published out of concern that it would show up on future internet postings. She did post the man’s name but iNFOnews.ca chose not to publish it since his identity was not confirmed by the school district.

“I checked in with her a lot about it,” Star said. “Mostly, she feels very sad whenever she thinks about it. It was really sad to be asked for a certificate to prove she’s a girl.”

Star did file a report with the RCMP but was told that since they were not called in to witness what was happening, there is nothing they can do about it.

She considers it a hate crime.

“The biggest thing I’m really hoping is that policies will be put in place so that, when stuff like this happens police are called right away,” Star said. “There was no protocol on what to do and we have to kind of accept that this is the world we live in and you’re going to get people who feel emboldened enough to do these atrocious things. It’s not fair to the parent volunteers at these events to be expected to navigate what are really criminal harassment matters.”

The post can be seen on the Kelowna Alert Facebook page here.

 - This story was updated at 1:18 p.m. on June 13, 2023 to change the term transgendered to transgender.

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