A West Virginia judge has reversed a school district’s ban on the five girls who protested against being forced to compete against a transgender player in their high school track & field events.
Last month, five girls protested against being forced to compete against transgender students by stepping into their shot put ring but then stepping right out again, thereby forfeiting their events.
5 middle school female athletes in West Virginia on Thursday refused to throw shot put against male Becky Pepper-Jackson.
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) April 19, 2024
They “stepped in” then “stepped out” in protest.
This is how you finally stop men from ruining women’s sports.
These girls get it!pic.twitter.com/Kufjp3BmUX
However, This peaceful protest led the Harrison County Board of Education to ban the girls from competition, calling their actions discriminatory.
In response to the ban, Republican West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey stepped up and signed a brief to support the girls and to protest the ban on their being allowed to compete as the girls filed a lawsuit against the school district for the ban.
“I want to say to these students and their parents: I have your backs,” AG Morrisey said. “You saw unfairness and you expressed your disappointment and sacrificed your personal performances in a sport that you love; exercised your constitutionally protected freedom of speech and expression.”
“These girls didn’t disrupt anything when they protested,” Morrisey added. “They should be commended, not punished. We need to teach them that it is noble to stand firm in their beliefs and address their grievances within the protections guaranteed by our constitution. They need not to be silent. They have won by having their voices heard.”
The latest move in this saga occurred on Thursday when a Harrison County Circuit Court judge ruled that the girls can continue to compete while their lawsuit is being heard.
Judge Thomas A. Bedell noted that the “public interest always preponderates toward freedom of speech,” according to WVNews.
The judge also seemed to think that the girl’s case leaned toward a free speech issue, not a gender issue. Still, he also said that there was no malice on behalf of the administrators at Lincoln Middle School who initiated the ban on the girls.
for its part, the Harrison County Board of Education denied they perpetrated any “form of retaliation against the Lincoln Middle School students who voluntarily chose to scratch from an event at the Harrison County Middle School Championship Track Meet,” and added that the five girls were allowed to mount their protests.
“Those students, like all of the other students on the team, however, were subject to a team rule that any player who scratches in an event cannot participate in that event at the next track meet. This neutral, school-specific rule was in place before the students’ protests and has nothing to do with those protests in any way. Other than not being permitted to participate in the same event in which they scratched at the next track meet, the students have competed in track meets and events following their protests without restriction,” the school said in a statement.
“To be clear, no students have been retaliated against or penalized for expressing their views at the Harrison County Middle School Championship Track Meet,” the district added.
AG Morrisey celebrated the judge’s decision on Thursday, saying that the girls “have won by having their voices heard.”
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