A girl’s high school field hockey team forfeited a game against another school rather than facing a male player on the opposing team, according to reports.
The girls of the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional high school field hockey team in Massachusetts have refused to take the field against Somerset Berkley Regional High School because one of Somerset’s players is a boy, according to the Daily Mail.
The girls are taking advantage of a new school policy that was set in June that allows teams to “opt out of competitions… against an opposing team because that team includes members of the opposite sex.”
“There are times where we have to place a higher value on safety than on victory,” the school district said in a public statement explaining the team’s decision not to play against the male player.
“We understand this forfeit will impact our chances for a league championship and possibly playoff eligibility, but we remain hopeful that other schools consider following suit to achieve safety and promote fair competition for female athletes,” the statement added.
The letter goes on to explain that the last time the girls played a team with a male player, one of their girls was seriously injured during the game.
Last year, during a game against Swampscott High School in November, one of the Dighton-Rehoboth girls suffered a serious injury that sent her to the hospital after being hit in the face by a shot made by a boy on the opposing team.
“Following the injury, my teammates were sobbing not only in fear for their teammate but also in fear that they had to go back out onto the field and continue a game, playing against a male athlete who hospitalized one of our own,” team co-captain Kelsey Bain wrote at the time.
“The traumatic event sheds light on the rules and regulations of male athletes participating in women’s sports,” she said.
For his part, Somerset Berkley Superintendent Jeff Schoonover insisted that his school follows all the rules laid out by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, which allows boys to play in whatever category they wish.
Boys are allowed to join girls’ field hockey teams in Massachusetts because the state school system does not support boys’ field hockey. In that case, the state has allowed not just transgender players to choose their sport but allows boys to play on girls’ field hockey teams because they have no other way to play the sport in school. And it’s all in an effort to institute “equal rights,” supporters of the measure say.
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