By Stephen Smoot
Last month, a federal court struck down West Virginia’s law that aims to prevent biological males from competing on girls’ sports teams. This happened just in time to allow a 13 year old self-described transgender Bridgeport Middle School athlete to participate in the Harrison County Championships.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the “Save our Sports Act” passed by the West Virginia State Legislature. The panel of three judges ruled two to one to set aside arguments that the law protected “fair competition” in scholastic sports and claimed that the individual had no actual choice.
Circuit Judge Toby Heytens stated that “The question before us is whether the Act may lawfully be applied to prevent a 13-year old transgender girl who takes puberty blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since the third grade from participating in her school’s cross-country and track teams. We hold it cannot.”
At the subsequent shot put event, the athlete, Becky Pepper-Johnson, won the event by more than three feet, giving her first place over a field of biologically female athletes.
Several athletes from Lincoln Middle School actively disqualified themselves at the event in protest of the court’s decision and the athlete’s participation. As a result, they were suspended from the next meet.
WDTV interviewed one of the athletes, Sabrina Shriver, and her mother Deborah.
Sabrina Shriver told WDTV “we were shocked and disappointed that (the athlete) was allowed to participate with us.”
Several of the girls then “scratched,” disqualifying themselves from the event. Because it was done as a protest, West Virginia Secondary Schools Athletic Commission rules came into play. They read that “the penalty for a violation by a student will not involve ejection during that particular contest, BUT shall also involve that student not being a part of the school’s team for the next regularly scheduled contest.”
Four of the parents filed suit against the Harrison County Board of Education while West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey pledged to take the fight for the law to the United States Supreme Court.
Two Lincoln Middle School athletes, as was reported on WOWK TV, testified that they had no awareness of the voluntary scratch rule cited as the reason for suspension in the next meet. They told the court that they had to do “Indian Runs” drills at the next practice and claimed it was for punishment.
The potentially problematic part of the application of the voluntary scratch rule is that it was, as the coaching staff admitted, “unwritten.” It had, however, been applied in meets in different situations over the years, which gave it a basis in practice.
The court also heard evidence that athletes on the same squad were not sanctioned for wearing shirts in support of keeping athletes born male off of female sports teams.
Judge Thomas Bedell was quoted by WOWK TV saying “even though there was no malice found on either part of the defendants, the plaintiffs have met their burden and the temporary injunction has been granted.”
Last week, the Harrison County Board of Education responded to the lawsuit in a press release. They stated that the Board “strongly denies 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.”
It went on to say that Lincoln Middle School coaches were aware of the possibility of protest, allowed it to go without sanction, and only applied a rule in place that forbade the protesting athletes from participating in the same event at a subsequent meet.
“To be clear,” the release read, “no students have been retaliated against or penalized for expressing their views at the Harrison County Middle School Championship Track Meet.”
Morrissey issued a press release the same day saying “I want to say to these students and their parents: I have your backs.” He stated that the Harrison County judge who heard the case about the suspensions issued “a preliminary injunction, allowing the girls to compete in shot put at future track and field meets.”
He also lauded the athletes because they “didn’t disrupt anything when they protested.”