A 20-year-old transgendered Hurricane Katrina evacuee remained in the Brazos County Jail on Thursday, five days after being arrested for showering inside a women's bathroom at Reed Arena.
Arpollo Vicks of New Orleans and her 16-year-old cousin were arrested Sunday night for criminal trespass after Texas A&M University Police noticed the two exiting a women's shower facility at the shelter. The two were born male but live as women and consider themselves female, Vicks said Thursday in an interview from the jail.
They are the only people who have been arrested at the local shelters since the first one opened Aug. 31, shelter officials said.
According to police who were providing security at the Reed Arena shelter, a woman complained Sunday night that several males were inside the women's shower facility.
Corps of Cadets Commandant John Van Alstyne, who is in charge of the shelter, was notified and told police that he earlier had warned Vicks and the teenager not to shower inside the women's facility.
"I know two males went into the women's rest room," Van Alstyne said Thursday. "It was something we considered inappropriate."
He declined to comment further.
"They had been warned and basically told not to do that," said Elmer Schneider, chief of the University Police Department. "Did we want to arrest them? No. We were almost forced into it because we had warned them. To me, in this case, it was something of their own choosing."
http://www.theeagle.com/stories/090905/local_20050909047.php
Arpollo Vicks of New Orleans and her 16-year-old cousin were arrested Sunday night for criminal trespass after Texas A&M University Police noticed the two exiting a women's shower facility at the shelter. The two were born male but live as women and consider themselves female, Vicks said Thursday in an interview from the jail.
They are the only people who have been arrested at the local shelters since the first one opened Aug. 31, shelter officials said.
According to police who were providing security at the Reed Arena shelter, a woman complained Sunday night that several males were inside the women's shower facility.
Corps of Cadets Commandant John Van Alstyne, who is in charge of the shelter, was notified and told police that he earlier had warned Vicks and the teenager not to shower inside the women's facility.
"I know two males went into the women's rest room," Van Alstyne said Thursday. "It was something we considered inappropriate."
He declined to comment further.
"They had been warned and basically told not to do that," said Elmer Schneider, chief of the University Police Department. "Did we want to arrest them? No. We were almost forced into it because we had warned them. To me, in this case, it was something of their own choosing."
http://www.theeagle.com/stories/090905/local_20050909047.php