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Join Telegram ChannelEXCLUSIVE: Two high school cross-country runners and their families are suing a California school district, alleging their “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts were compared to a swastika.
Plaintiffs Kaitlyn and Taylor, two Martin Luther King High School athletes in the ninth and 11th grades respectively, wore T-shirts bearing the messages “Save Girls' Sports” and “It's Common Sense. XX ≠ XY.”
The girls wore the shirts after a transgender athlete, who did not regularly attend practices or meet key college eligibility requirements, was placed on the varsity team, moving Taylor from her spot, according to the complaint .
“My first reaction was like I was really surprised, because it was like, why is this happening to me?” Taylor told Fox News Digital. “There is a transgender student on the team. Why am I being moved when I have worked so hard and attended every practice, and this student has only attended a few training.”
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Taylor and Kaitlyn, two high school cross country athletes from Riverside, California, sued the district for allegedly interfering with their First Amendment rights and Title IX violations. (Courtesy of Kaitlyn and Taylor)
School officials in the athletic department allegedly forced students to remove or hide their shirts, saying they created a “hostile” environment and comparing wearing the shirts to wearing a swastika in front of students Jews.
“It was really hard to hear because we're not trying to be hateful in any way,” Kaitlyn told Fox News Digital. “We just wear a shirt that expresses what we believe in trying to bring awareness to a situation.”
The transgender athlete, however, was allegedly allowed to wear “trans pride” bracelets, and the school allows other forms of social messaging on campus, including an LGBTQ pride flag, the complaint states.
“The biological transgender athlete who replaced TS on the girls' varsity team had recently transferred from another local high school after breaking that school's all-time record for the girls' cross country team,” it says. the complaint.
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“TS, who had held a position in the Women's Varsity Top 7 since August 2024, was removed from the Women's Varsity Top 7 to make room in the Women's Varsity Top 7 for a transgender eleventh grade student and TS was relegated to junior varsity team for one of the most important college recruiting competitions of the season,” the complaint states.
According to the girls' Advocates for Faith and Freedom attorney, Julianne Fleischer, the lawsuit claims there were violations of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and their protections under Title IX.
In October, according to the complaint, the district's Title IX coordinator, Bethany Scott, informed Taylor's mother of a formal investigation into her complaint. Scott also indicated that Taylor would not be at a disadvantage by making the junior varsity team at an upcoming key cross country meet, but her mother argued that it would hurt her chances of being noticed by college scouts. . On Nov. 1, after a follow-up, the district reclassified the Title IX complaint as a confidential personnel matter, saying it did not meet the criteria for sex discrimination.
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Taylor and Kaitlyn are cross country runners in RUSD. (iStock)
Typically, several factors, beyond race times, are considered for college selection to the cross country team. The complaint alleges that Taylor's dedication and hard work were overlooked and that the school district failed to provide a clear explanation, forming the basis of Title IX. complaint, Fleisher said.
“We're seeing more and more women and girls speaking out and challenging these policies that allow biological boys to join and participate in these sports,” Fleischer told Fox News Digital. “And so lawsuits are popping up all over the country. We're hopeful that even with the new administration and Congress, we'll see real positive changes in Title IX that actually defends and protects women's rights to participate in their sports, being safe and being able to compete against each other.”
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Under the Biden-Harris administration, Title IX was amended to include discrimination against gender identity and sexual orientation. The Supreme Court ruled in August against one of Biden's requests that would have authorized biological men in women's restrooms, locker rooms and dormitories in 10 states where state and local rules are in place to prevent it.
On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump said he would reverse Biden-Harris policies on gender treatment of minors and protect women in sports.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Riverside Unified School District and Martin Luther King High School for comment.