DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A western Iowa teenager who faced harassment at school has been allowed to enroll in another district after his local school board denied his request for a transfer. The Des Moines Register reports that the Oakland student‘s clothes were thrown into a gym toilet and the word “snitch” was painted on his car. The Iowa Board of Education said Wednesday that the teen faced escalating harassment.

The board says the student, identified by initials K.M., faced physical and verbal threats from a group of ninth-grade students after he overheard a conversation about drinking and drugs in a gym locker room. K.M. sought permission to open-enroll out of the Riverside Community School District, but the local school board denied his request, citing a missed application deadline.