Transgender athlete controversy sparks opposing protests at California school board meeting
A board meeting at the Riverside Unified School District was preceded by protests for and against transgender inclusion amid an ongoing lawsuit.
The Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) in California hosted a board meeting Thursday amid a controversy over a transgender cross country runner at Martin Luther King High School and students being reprimanded for protesting the athlete's participation.
The board meeting will address recent allegations in a lawsuit that school administrators compared "Save Girls' Sports" T-shirts to swastikas.
Protesters gathered outside the RUSD District Office, advocating for and against transgender inclusion.
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Video footage of the meeting provided by parents to California Family Outreach Director Sophia Lorey showed a crowd of people hoisting the transgender pride flag and wearing shirts with similar colors.
Lorey told Fox News Digital there were a few people outside the venue wearing the "Save Girls' Sports" T-shirts, but they were outnumbered by the pro-transgender activists.
The California Family Council, alongside the religious rights law firm Advocates for Faith and Freedom, held a press conference outside the district office ahead of the board meeting addressing the ongoing controversy.
Ryan Starks, the father of a girl at the school named Taylor who is involved in a lawsuit against the school, spoke at the press conference. The lawsuit alleges Taylor lost her varsity spot to a transgender athlete and that her T-shirt to express opposition to the athlete competing was compared to a swastika.
"It's just heartbreaking to see what my daughter has gone through this season," Starks said.
"This is unfair. This is completely unfair. It breaks my heart as a father to see my daughter go through this and have it stripped away from her, have her come up to me and just hug me. And I can't do anything about it. So, it's just heartbreaking."
An attorney representing Taylor in the lawsuit, Julianne Fleischer, previously told Fox News Digital the rhetoric from school administrators is "incredibly dangerous."
"When you have adults that compare a message ‘Save Girls' Sports’ that promotes equality, fairness, common sense — when you have adults that compare that message to a swastika, which represents the genocide of millions of Jews, really, there are no words. I don't know how you respond to that," Fleischer said.
Hundreds of students at Martin Luther King High School began to wear the T-shirts every Wednesday. The school responded by enacting a dress code that resulted in many of those students being sent to detention. But that didn't stop them. The students kept wearing the shirts weekly.
The school recently stopped enforcing its dress code for the shirts.
Sources have told Fox News officials at nearby Arlington High School, Riverside Polytechnical High School and Romona High School have also seen students wearing them.
In a statement previously provided to Fox News Digital, RUSD said it has allowed the transgender athlete to compete on the team because it must comply with California state law.
"It is important to remember that RUSD is bound to follow California law, which requires that students be 'permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records,'" the statement said.
"As these matters play out in our courts and the media, opposition and protests should be directed at those in a position to affect those laws and policies, including officials in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento."
California has had laws in effect to protect transgender athletes in women's sports since 2014. That year, AB 1266 took effect, giving California students at scholastic and collegiate levels the right to "participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records."
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