Middle schoolers who protested trans athlete in girls shotput competition banned from next competition. lawsuit filed

No, the school district doesn't automatically have the right to suspend these student-athletes for protesting - especially not in the in the simultaneously offhand and high-handed way they've gone about it.

The school board in this case, Harrison County Board of Education (HCBE), have taken disciplinary action against the student-athletes who protested apparently without having the legal authority to do so and without proceeding in a manner that meets even the most basic standards of due process.

If disciplinary action is to be taken against the girls who protested, the appropriate body to take the action is the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission - not the Harrison County Board of Education.

But even so, if disciplinary action is to be taken by the WVSSAC, it has to be done in a legal manner. The WVSSAC has to inform the girls who protested which rule/s they violated and explain why the girls are being punished in the way they are. The girls have to be given a right to respond.

In the court filings so far, the protesting students' parents and the WV Attorney General say the girls who protestested did not violate any rule.

Because of this writing, there is no rule in WV that says when judges, public school officials or other government authorities decree that a male student, or male students, must be allowed to compete in interscholastic sports contests that are designated single sex and are supposed to be for female students only - which is what has happend in this case - then all females student-athletes who signed up for female-only school sports must be required/forced to compete in all/any interscholastic contests in which they will be pitted against the male/s that authorities have allowed into the contest.

The girls in this case exercised their First Amendment rights by refusing to compete in a silent, peaceful, unobstructive way. They didn't disrupt the event, prevent anyone else from competing, or try to shut down the event. They didn't shout, make unkind remarks, or say anything the slightest bit negative about the judges who made the ruling in this case, school authorities, or the particular trans-identified male student who was competing in the girls' shot put that day after waging a four-year-long court battle aimed at establishing that males who say they "identify as" girls and take so-called "puberty blockers" have a right to compete in girls' and women's single-sex sports in West Virginia. The girls who protested did so without opening their mouths and saying anything at all.

From the lawsuit filed by the girls' parents against the school board seeking injunctive relief:

45. Legislative rules govern interscholastic sports in West Virginia.

46. West Virginia Code of State Rule § 127-3-8.4 provides specific rules related to protests:

"If a team, or student participating in an individual contest, leaves the playing area in protest and fails to complete the contest, the contest is forfeited and the school principal or designee and the violator may be required to appear before the WVSSAC Executive Director to indicate why additional action should not be taken." (emphasis added)
.
47. To date, no action has been taken by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities
Commission. Rather, Defendant, through its employees Lori Scott and Dawn Riestenberg, has disciplined the minor student athletes without regard for the governing legislative rules without regard for the student athletes’rights to free speech and free expression, and without regard for the student athletes’ due process rights afforded under Article III, Section 10 of the Constitution of West Virginia.

48. By unilaterally declaring the student athletes ineligible or otherwise disciplining
the student athletes for their protected conduct, Defendant has deprived the
minor student athletes of a liberty interest protected by the West Virginia Constitution without notice, an opportunity to be heard, or any other due process.

My immediate question is what rule did the "protesters" break and what entity is handing down the discipline?

Couple of sidenotes: reading online in reports such as the NYPost can be misleading. The kids weren't banned. It is essentially a one meet suspension...not that they should have received any discipline.

This is also a parents issue. While peer pressure likely plays into it, I'm sure the kids are acting on the say so of the parents.

oh, i thought about my choice of words. i've seen the footage that they did this at least one round, who knows, maybe more, that's i have to stand around while you pretend like you might do the shot then don't.

the etiquette in such circumstances is to scratch. that is interfering.

in terms of the etiquette, it is slower, not faster. the etiquette is we should be on to the next thrower who actually wants to compete. i think there were 4-5 girls out of 25. you are seriously suggesting that 24 competing -- 4-5 girls repeatedly stepping in then out -- is faster than the 20 it should have been. that's another fib. if you know the sport you should know better.

to compare it to what would happen on a running event, that might be an extra heat gets run because the meet runner assumed kids who didn't courteously scratch.

one time we played a rival in a big serious soccer final. they hadn't ever beat us and were probably unhappy to see us again, and not eager to set a pattern when we play them in league in the fall. 10 minutes we get a chance on goal, keeper takes down our forward, PK, red card. we score PK, 1-0 up. their coach pulls their team in protest. we win the tournament in 10 minutes. no one is going to applaud the opposing team's efficiency in resolving who won, and they might not be invited back.

i mean, i briefly did LJ in junior high. if i run down and then bail and go through the pit, i haven't saved a second, and the raking might take longer than usual. if i walk out to the runway then step back off, over a few jumps we're talking extra minute or so. if i don't intend to compete, i scratch, and they skip me. that is the efficient outcome.

they have their reasons, and we can debate if you should be able to do them quietly without punishment. but suggesting it's faster is silly.

There was ZERO Problem with Kaepernick protesting Rogue Cops/Cop Brutality of totally Innocent Citizens which everyone is against, The Problem was he was not standing for the Flag which is Taboo in the USA and goes against "My Country may she always be in the Right, but Right or Wrong My Country. The Flag is a Symbol of the USA and using it in a protest seems like you are against the USA,even though we all know Kaepernick loves the USA just like Nathan Hale did, like the Men who knowing they were likely to die in the Normandy Invasion, but gladly gave their lives out of love for the USA, The problem was not the protest, it was it looked like he did not love the USA, which we know he does and we know he is proud of The USA and he would also give his life for his love of the USA as many have. Just using The Flag which is A SYMBOL OF AMERICA was the problem.

If it makes you feel better, i think all of us can agree on one thing...no WAY this case will be successful. Stepping out the kids made their point and can certainly take a DQ. But what grounds could anyone "ban" them from competition forever? And before you even say it, no they didn't do anything to keep anyone LGBTQ from competing, so its not even a woke/ non woke issue. So I dont see what anyone could do. God help the schools if they try this. Parents will sue them to kingdom come.

IMO a one game suspension is also unfair. If they stepped out, they took DNF/DQ? That's the punishment.

But what's the rule? You can't scratch in the shotput? That the school district can punish you if you don't try 100% in sports. I could see the team doing it but not the district.

Seems to me the school district is punishing speech they disagree with which is unconstitutional.

I'm adding links to the original poss.

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westvirginiawatch.com

Morrisey files brief supporting WV students who protested competing with transgender athlete • West Virginia Watch

Amelia Ferrell Knisely

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a brief in support of the female middle school student-athletes who publicly protested a transgender athlete competing in their track and field competition.

Link:westvirginiawatch.com/2024/04/29/morri...

nypost.com

Middle schoolers who protested trans athlete’s participation are banned from future competitions

@nypost

Five West Virginia middle schoolers who protested a transgender athlete’s participation in a track and field competition have been barred from future matches — prompting the state’s att…

Link:nypost.com/2024/04/30/us-news/middle-s...

to clarify from where the punishment emanates, my understanding is the coach had the throwers do extra running and then held them out of a meet last weekend, saying something about her job (coach? athlete?) being to score points for the team. i don't know if that was her decision or came from the AD or a principal.

again with the fibs, this is a coach's decision unless someone ordered the coach. coach was like, you cost me effort and points. i don't know how you can reverse being benched at coach's choice as opposed to some governing body saying thou shalt sit a week.

I hadn't seen your analysis when I posted. There is a specific process for something like this and it wasn't followed. Seems like an easy injunction to get them to compete.

i mean, y'all do get this is both a sporting event AND the stage for your little performance, and that if you use my sporting event as coach, as your political stage, i might respond by treating you -- specifics ignored -- like an athlete who went to the meet then refused to play. ok, you see jamie over there? she wanted to go to that meet. i took you instead. you didn't compete. next week i take jamie instead.

you may feel what you did is righteous but if the coach didn't sign off don't assume it's consequence free.

dude, y'all are wandering off on abstractions and assuming some sort of league punishment that has a protest process. those aren't the real facts. as i understand it, the coach had them run extra then benched them. you can now go through and parse some more WV rules. there is no WV rule saying anyone has to start or play each week. i doubt there is any rule where the coach has to have a reason why that would hold up in court.

from the coach's standpoint it's a discipline issue. obviously she didn't sign off.

if i walked on a soccer field then stood there and got run by for a goal as some protest, i am not just benched but maybe even asked for my uniform back and kicked off. you made your point, here's mine back. good luck with your lawsuit about your first amendment rights.

one time in spring soccer practice i skipped an early morning weight workout to study for a midterm that morning. coach benched me the next scrimmage and i played 10 minutes. do i get to "appeal" that anyplace? explain my "valid" reason? no.

The girls didn't "disrupt a track meet," though. Each of of them simply stepped into the shot put circle, then immediately stepped out, and handed the shot to the official. This took under 10 seconds apiece.

It was a silent, peaceful protest that didn't interfere with the event or with anyone else's rights. None of the girls said a word. They didn't try to stop the meet from occurring. They didn't make a scene that held up or slowed down the meet in the slightest. They didn't try to stop anyone else from competing. They didn't disrupt the track meet in any way.

Also, for the record, the male student-athlete who "identifies as" a girl in this case, Becky Pepper Jackson, isn't 12. A lot of people are lying or fudging to make it seem as though the youth the girls protested competing against in the shot put is a pre-teen child who just started middle school rather than a teenager who's now ending 8th grade and will be in HS when West Virginia students start the new school year in August.

Court filings made on behalf of the trans-identifying male student and press releases about the case say that Becky Pepper Jackson was 11 in May 2021 when the ACLU and other attorneys first lodged the lawsuit claiming that males like Jackson have a right to play and compete in sex-segregated school sports established, designated and meant for female students.

This means Jackson would have been 12 in May 2022 and 13 in May 2023.

In an article recounting a previously-conducted interview with Jackons' mother that was published in Harper's Bazaar on May 15, 2023, Jackson's mother said Becky was 13. So today Becky Pepper Jackson is either 14 or will be turning 14 within the next two weeks.

Based on this article, it appears the suspension may be coming from within the school...either the coach or the school itself.

If it came from the coach...I'm in agreement with the coach. If a couple of runners in the 1600m decided to step off the track prior to the gun, they'd likely be disciplined as well. I don't see this as different.

wvrecord.com

Morrisey supports middle school girls barred from competing following transgender protest

Chris Dickerson

CHARLESTON –West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office has filed an amicus brief supporting five Harrison County middle school athletes who have been barred from competing in their next track and field meet afte...

Link:wvrecord.com/stories/658174322-morrise...

not if the decider is her coach. "we had a game last weekend and you turned it into a protest and cost your team points." i get some of you want to emphasize the perceived righteousness of the protest, but this was one competitor to deal with, 19 other kids managed it, and presumably 5-7 of them got their teams points.

also, if this is a progression, and they compete with that girl again this week, is it just a xerox? more protests? they can show up to the meet with protest signs but the coach has a team to run.

i also would assume if she was ineligible on some obvious ground like age, it would have been noticed and come up in court. that if they can boot her on age they would do that and avoid the whole trans debate.

nah, that sounds like a smear. has to be in the right grade to compete and presumably is under the age limit. like the school district would have her enrollment papers and birth certificate.

They were not banned forever. They received one meet suspension.

It is also important to note that they did not receive suspension right after their protest at the meet. They received suspension after they held a press conference with State AG, Auditor and Republican State Senators and House Delegates.

Okay name 5 democrats in Congress who support women's rights and fair play.