Riverside County school district latest to be roiled by fight over trans athletes

The Riverside Unified School District has become the latest battleground over transgender athletes’ participation in sports after two female students filed a lawsuit this week alleging that a trans girl had ousted them from coveted spots on the cross-country team.

The suit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles, also claims that when the girls protested what they perceived as the unfairness of the situation by wearing T-shirts that said “Save Girls’ Sports,” school officials compared it to wearing a swastika in front of a Jewish student.

The suit claims that the district’s policies and practices “unfairly restrict” the girls’ “freedom of expression and deny them fair and equal access to athletic opportunities.” The suit was filed on behalf of two girls and their parents by Advocates for Faith & Freedom, which describes itself as “a nonprofit legal ministry dedicated to protecting religious liberty in the courts.”

Riverside County officials could not be reached Saturday for comment, but in a statement published by the San Francisco Chronicle, district spokesperson Liz Pinney-Muglia said that “California state law prohibits discrimination of students based on gender, gender identity and gender expression, and specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in physical education and athletics.” Her statement added: “The protections we provide to all students are not only aligned with the law but also with our core values, which include equity and well-being.”

That sentiment did not satisfy crowds of people who showed up Thursday at the Riverside Unified School Board meeting to complain — with some vowing to return, with even more protesters, in coming weeks.

“I’m here today to put you on notice,” parent Jose Carillo told the board. “After today, there will be advocates here at every school board meeting … There’s going to be a lot more of us. It’s going to be standing-room only.”

He added that board members should heed the election results that returned Donald Trump to the White House. “This election woke people up,” he said.

School board members did not directly address the issue because it was not formally on the agenda.

The fight in Riverside is one of a series of battles raging across California over trans women in sports. The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs most high school sports in California, permits transgender athletes to join teams based on their gender identity. Many parents and students object to that policy. A Christian high school from Merced, for example, this month forfeited a volleyball match rather than play against a private school in San Francisco that had a trans student on the team, according to the San Jose Mercury News. At the college level, a former player and an assistant coach at San Jose State filed a lawsuit to try to ban a trans player from playing in a championship game.

The lawsuit against Riverside Unified describes a conflict over trans athletes that erupted after coaches made their selections for which runners would participate in a high-profile cross-country meet earlier this fall.

One student, known in court papers as T.S., is an 11th-grader so dedicated to running that she had taken a course in summer school so as to free up her schedule in the fall for more time to train. She was also a team captain, and had won a coveted spot at the Mt. SAC Invitational, one of the most important high school cross-country events in California.

Then, a trans girl, known in court papers as M.L., transferred to their school.

According to the lawsuit, M.L. did not train for as many hours with the team, and did not show up to all required events. And yet, M.L., who posted faster times, was given a top spot, and T.S. was knocked out of the “Team Sweepstakes” portion of the Mt. SAC meet. T.S., the lawsuit said, thus “missed opportunities to compete at a high-profile meet, losing valuable chances for college recruitment and recognition.”

The other plaintiff in the lawsuit is on the junior varsity team, but as a top runner there, could be in contention for a varsity spot should any of the varsity runners fall ill or get injured.

Both students alleged that the presence of the trans athlete on their team deprived them of opportunities.

They decided to stage a protest at the Mt. SAC meet, according to the lawsuit. Along with more than a dozen other parents and grandparents, they showed up at the event sporting blue T-shirts that said “Save Girls’ Sports” on the front and on the back: “It’s Common Sense. XX [does not equal] XY.”

The lawsuit says that the two students who wore the shirts are religious Christians, and that the shirts were “intended to express their religious viewpoint and to advocate for the protection of fair competition for girls based on biological sex.”

They also claim that “the messages on the shirts were not directed toward any teammate or student or individual.”

Nevertheless, when they wore them to a cross-country practice on Nov. 1, the school’s athletic director told them the shirts created a hostile environment and told them they had to remove them or cover them.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare that the school district’s action restriction the students’ speech on their T-shirts is unconstitutional. It also wants the court to rule that the school district failed to provide equal treatment for girls in sport, a violation of Title IX, and it seeks monetary damages.

The school district has yet to respond in court to the filing.