The original title has been changed to make it more accurate. The original title was: Middle schoolers who protested trans athlete in girls shotput competition banned from future competitions.
and you just wasted several paragraphs moaning about it, as though you really care about page consumption and being on-topic.
all due respect to your posturing and attempts to make this personal, but half the "game" here is how do we compare this new situation to more garden variety sports situations. so comparisons are fine. you seem to be implying that we treat this like an injury DNS. except the kids walked in the circle, raised the shot, then no-marked it and walked back out. if i just handed that kid a meet jersey and shorts, drove them to the meet, entered them in events, paid an entry fee for the team, spent department budget on food and drink including their meals and drinks, i don't think it gets treated like a hammy pull.
you want to just talk about "the thing" and paint it in a false factual light. i have corrected your inaccurate narrative. i have then noted how it is probably more like a coach pulling his team off the field after a controversial reffing decision. the athletes may not like the court's decision. but it was the rules the meet was operating under. you pull your stunt. you make your political point. but there may be consequences.
it's really ironic listening to this stuff from folks whose campus protest response is probably clear the main lawn of everyone there. oh, so there we say the school is boss and the students may suffer consequences where their actions affect the school or team, or violate team rules. hmmm
The middle school track meet controversy may go to the Supreme Court.
The middle school girls who stepped out of the ring instead of throwing the shot against a biological male have now been banned from future competitions.
How is that even constitutional? I'm trying to think of analogies. But the school district is essentially saying they can ban kids who don't try their hardest in a sport from competing again?
I can see how the track coach might have rules or whatnot but can a school district restrict kids from not trying their hardest from competing again?
Don't kids have a right to compete? Say I'm a basketball player and I don't like my coach. And I say "I'm just going to walk on the court" when put in the game. I do that. The coach has a right to not put me in the game because I'm not competitive but I don't think the school district has a right to say I can't play in another game again because they don't like my attitude.
What am I missing?
In the first place, these kids are being used as proxies by their parents.
The next move by their parents should be to organize invitational-only competitions so that their children can compete on terms that the parents think are fair.
If they're going to compete in some interscholastic sports league, then abide by its rules.
Otherwise, make your own league, and make your own rules.
and the coach's point, presumably, was we have a meet with 24 girls. 19 of whom made throws. several of whom got points for their teams. additional trans athlete or not.
and while you may think your point sounds semi-clever, it's "politics." the "legality" of the situation is -- until some other court changes the ruling -- trans athlete competes. those are the "rules." just like running out of your lane is a DQ. you can protest that decision but it's protesting the ground rules under which the meet is running.
So the ground rules were that boys can compete against girls? Or whatever the competitor claims to identify as?
First question, how do I set blocks for hooves? Asking for a friend.
Furthermore, my post was clever... and so is this one.
a court has already ruled on this. until they win on appeal or get a stay, IS WHAT IT IS.
i mean, the kids on college campuses seem to think they can tell the college how to run itself for the school. how is that much different than 4-5 kids throwing a fit over the meet letting the trans kid play, under court order to do so.
personally i find the protests fake. the meet runner probably gets in legal trouble if they do what the kids ask, as a court has ordered the opposite. as such, you aren't twisting the meet runner's arm or making them reconsider. you're throwing a public spectacle hoping to make people support your legal appeal. at the expense of the meet just following orders.
and the coach's point, presumably, was we have a meet with 24 girls. 19 of whom made throws. several of whom got points for their teams. additional trans athlete or not.
and while you may think your point sounds semi-clever, it's "politics." the "legality" of the situation is -- until some other court changes the ruling -- trans athlete competes. those are the "rules." just like running out of your lane is a DQ. you can protest that decision but it's protesting the ground rules under which the meet is running.
So the ground rules were that boys can compete against girls? Or whatever the competitor claims to identify as?
First question, how do I set blocks for hooves? Asking for a friend.
Furthermore, my post was clever... and so is this one.
The Circuit Court did not say you could compete as whatever you identified with.
They specifically pointed out that BJP had been on puberty blocker and cross hormone therapy to prevent testosterone-driven puberty, and it had not been proved that she had any competitive advantage.
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.
So let me get this straight: you think it is probably ok to harass 13 year olds? And if they are almost 14 it is definitely ok?
And yes they disrupted the track meet with their selfish behavior. If they didn’t want to compete, they could have stayed home.
No, I don't think it's okay to harass 13 year-olds. I don't support anyone being harassed.
But the girls in this case did not harass Becky Pepper Jackson. They staged a silent protest.
It's telling that you slag off the female student-athletes in this case for displaying "selfish behavior" rather than the male student-athlete and all the other males that Becky Pepper Jackson represents and is serving as a stalking horse for.
None of the males who are using gender identity to demand to compete in female sports and use female locker rooms and loos seem to give a hoot about how their own incredibly selfish behavior impacts others.
It's also telling that you say if temale student-athletes don't want to compete against males in female sports contests, the solution is for the females to stay home.
There's a lot of that going around nowadays. Across the Western world, women and girls are being told that if we don't like competing against blokes in women's and girls' sports - and we don't want teenage boys and grown men in women's locker rooms, toilets, changing rooms, spas, showers, dorms, sororities, shelters, rape crisis centers, domestic/IP violence irefuges, hospital rooms and wards, prisons, nursing homes, etc - then we all should stay home.
Please set out the reasons why you think female students in the USA should have to stay home and miss out on sex-segregated school sports established and meant for female students so that male students like Becky Pepper Jackson who want in on the female category of sports can get their way?
Why are the girls in this case seflish for wanting to retain the right of girls and women to have our own female-only sports but males like Becky Pepper Jackson aren't selfish for demanding that girls and women be forced to give up the female-only sports that generations fought hard for because now a bunch of males like Jackson want in?
Why can't Becky Pepper Jackson compete in sports in the correct sex category? Or in mixed-sex sports? Why does Becky Pepper Jackson have to compete in female sports?
This post was edited 6 minutes after it was posted.
So let me get this straight: you think it is probably ok to harass 13 year olds? And if they are almost 14 it is definitely ok?
And yes they disrupted the track meet with their selfish behavior. If they didn’t want to compete, they could have stayed home.
No, I don't think it's okay to harass 13 year-olds. I don't support anyone being harassed.
But the girls in this case did not harass Becky Pepper Jackson. They staged a silent protest.
It's telling that you slag off the female student-athletes in this case for displaying "selfish behavior" rather than the male student-athlete and all the other males that Becky Pepper Jackson represents and is serving as a stalking horse for.
None of the males who are using gender identity to demand to compete in female sports and use female locker rooms and loos seem to give a hoot about how their own incredibly selfish behavior impacts others.
It's also telling that you say if temale student-athletes don't want to compete males in female sports contests, the solution is for the females to stay home.
There's a lot of that going around nowadays. Across the Western world, women and girls are being told that if we don't like competing against blokes in women's and girls' sports - and we don't want teenage boys and grown men in women's locker rooms, toilets, changing rooms, spas, showers, dorms, sororities, shelters, rape crisis centers, domestic/IP violence irefuges, hospital rooms and wards, prisons, nursing homes, etc - then we all should stay home.
Please set out the reasons why you think female students in the USA should have to stay home and miss out on sex-segregated school sports established and meant for female students so that male students like Becky Pepper Jackson who want in on the female category of sports can get their way?
Why are the girls in this case seflish for wanting to retain the right of girls and women to have our own female-only sports but males like Becky Pepper Jackson aren't selfish for demanding that girls and women be forced to give up the female-only sports that generations fought hard for because now a bunch of males like Jackson want in?
Why can't Becky Pepper Jackson compete in sports in the correct sex category? Or in mixed-sex sports? Why does Becky Pepper Jackson have to compete in female sports?
Then why are you supporting harassment of a teenaged girl? Do you really think an action designed to make 1 person feel unwanted isn’t targeted harassment? How do you think she felt about this protest?
If a person doesn’t want to compete according to the rules, yes they should stay home. You don’t show up and ruin everyone else’s day. If you don’t like the rules, go play a game where you do like the rules.
Why shouldn’t Becky compete in the category the governing body has decided is the right one for her? Why should she have to worry about something that the adults in charge are responsible for? Because a few snowflakes don’t like trans kids? Sounds like their problem and not hers.
This isn't a "left " issue. This is a far extreme left talking point. We on the left do not support this. So stop painting the left with this idiotic brush. We pretty much agree that men identifying as women need to compete in mens divisions.
If this was only a fringe issue, then just about every major sports league wouldn't be needing to make or alter policies on this issue. These controversies wouldn't be popping up if it was just a few extreme wackos.
No, I don't think it's okay to harass 13 year-olds. I don't support anyone being harassed.
But the girls in this case did not harass Becky Pepper Jackson. They staged a silent protest.
It's telling that you slag off the female student-athletes in this case for displaying "selfish behavior" rather than the male student-athlete and all the other males that Becky Pepper Jackson represents and is serving as a stalking horse for.
None of the males who are using gender identity to demand to compete in female sports and use female locker rooms and loos seem to give a hoot about how their own incredibly selfish behavior impacts others.
It's also telling that you say if temale student-athletes don't want to compete males in female sports contests, the solution is for the females to stay home.
There's a lot of that going around nowadays. Across the Western world, women and girls are being told that if we don't like competing against blokes in women's and girls' sports - and we don't want teenage boys and grown men in women's locker rooms, toilets, changing rooms, spas, showers, dorms, sororities, shelters, rape crisis centers, domestic/IP violence irefuges, hospital rooms and wards, prisons, nursing homes, etc - then we all should stay home.
Please set out the reasons why you think female students in the USA should have to stay home and miss out on sex-segregated school sports established and meant for female students so that male students like Becky Pepper Jackson who want in on the female category of sports can get their way?
Why are the girls in this case seflish for wanting to retain the right of girls and women to have our own female-only sports but males like Becky Pepper Jackson aren't selfish for demanding that girls and women be forced to give up the female-only sports that generations fought hard for because now a bunch of males like Jackson want in?
Why can't Becky Pepper Jackson compete in sports in the correct sex category? Or in mixed-sex sports? Why does Becky Pepper Jackson have to compete in female sports?
Then why are you supporting harassment of a teenaged girl? Do you really think an action designed to make 1 person feel unwanted isn’t targeted harassment? How do you think she felt about this protest?
If a person doesn’t want to compete according to the rules, yes they should stay home. You don’t show up and ruin everyone else’s day. If you don’t like the rules, go play a game where you do like the rules.
Why shouldn’t Becky compete in the category the governing body has decided is the right one for her? Why should she have to worry about something that the adults in charge are responsible for? Because a few snowflakes don’t like trans kids? Sounds like their problem and not hers.
Sometimes an action can be morally wrong even if the action is in accordance with the rules.
The middle school track meet controversy may go to the Supreme Court.
The middle school girls who stepped out of the ring instead of throwing the shot against a biological male have now been banned from future competitions.
How is that even constitutional?
What am I missing?
I think you're missing the part where the Constitution doesn't outline a vision on middle school sports.
Or are you under the impression that Thomas Jefferson has a section on 4 square and dodgeball written in there?
No, I don't think it's okay to harass 13 year-olds. I don't support anyone being harassed.
But the girls in this case did not harass Becky Pepper Jackson. They staged a silent protest.
It's telling that you slag off the female student-athletes in this case for displaying "selfish behavior" rather than the male student-athlete and all the other males that Becky Pepper Jackson represents and is serving as a stalking horse for.
None of the males who are using gender identity to demand to compete in female sports and use female locker rooms and loos seem to give a hoot about how their own incredibly selfish behavior impacts others.
It's also telling that you say if temale student-athletes don't want to compete males in female sports contests, the solution is for the females to stay home.
There's a lot of that going around nowadays. Across the Western world, women and girls are being told that if we don't like competing against blokes in women's and girls' sports - and we don't want teenage boys and grown men in women's locker rooms, toilets, changing rooms, spas, showers, dorms, sororities, shelters, rape crisis centers, domestic/IP violence irefuges, hospital rooms and wards, prisons, nursing homes, etc - then we all should stay home.
Please set out the reasons why you think female students in the USA should have to stay home and miss out on sex-segregated school sports established and meant for female students so that male students like Becky Pepper Jackson who want in on the female category of sports can get their way?
Why are the girls in this case seflish for wanting to retain the right of girls and women to have our own female-only sports but males like Becky Pepper Jackson aren't selfish for demanding that girls and women be forced to give up the female-only sports that generations fought hard for because now a bunch of males like Jackson want in?
Why can't Becky Pepper Jackson compete in sports in the correct sex category? Or in mixed-sex sports? Why does Becky Pepper Jackson have to compete in female sports?
Then why are you supporting harassment of a teenaged girl? Do you really think an action designed to make 1 person feel unwanted isn’t targeted harassment? How do you think she felt about this protest?
If a person doesn’t want to compete according to the rules, yes they should stay home. You don’t show up and ruin everyone else’s day. If you don’t like the rules, go play a game where you do like the rules.
Why shouldn’t Becky compete in the category the governing body has decided is the right one for her? Why should she have to worry about something that the adults in charge are responsible for? Because a few snowflakes don’t like trans kids? Sounds like their problem and not hers.
Because Becky is a male and it's unfair to all the girls.
re the first amendment, they weren't holding up signs when not competing. that would be complicated but actually a speech issue. and not a sports one as they competed.
and mom and dad weren't holding up signs but the kids competed. then the kids are reliable athletes at a sporting competition, while the adults have a free speech thing.
no, they encouraged the coach to send them on the field of play.......let me enter you in the event, here's your uniform, board the bus.......then pulled the rug and didn't compete. the coach then has to consider whether to enter them next week, or whether to use athletes who will actually reliably play. to underline something, they didn't actually "say" anything, it was just symbolic. but that expression is on the playing field at the team's expense.
they aren't being silenced.......your whole point is they were silent in the first place.
for comparison, parents make kid run track. you enter the kid at the meet. the kid no shows, or goes there then makes a deliberate farcical effort. drops the shot off the circle half a foot. drops it on the concrete circle. stays in the blocks at the gun. starts walking the track at the gun. are they not done with track team THAT DAY? or they better have a good excuse.
you're pretending a week -- which i am not even sure was ever implemented, based on people saying some competed -- isn't actually a compromise. they arguably did what i just said is a "kicked off the team" offense of farcical effort. why don't they get the same punishment? i know they wanted maximum impact but zero responsibility to the team and the coach. i assume the coach factored in past history of being reliable and the symbolic nature and split the difference at a week. they should be glad that's all it was.
football player acts in practice like he's gonna play. i give him a uni, drive him to the game complex, give him the game plan. he warms up with his teammates. i put him in on offense, send in a play to hand him off the ball. he takes it and kneels or drops it for some political point.
In my experience, middle schools let any child who wants to compete, the opportunity. they took nothing away from anyone. Did they know the boy would be competing against them? Most of the girls probably did other events so it was not a wasted trip. Who cares which team wins? Usually it is the school with the most kids.
This isn't a "left " issue. This is a far extreme left talking point. We on the left do not support this. So stop painting the left with this idiotic brush. We pretty much agree that men identifying as women need to compete in mens divisions.
This isn't a "left " issue. This is a far extreme left talking point. We on the left do not support this. So stop painting the left with this idiotic brush. We pretty much agree that men identifying as women need to compete in mens divisions.
False. It's a left issue.
The reality is you didn't stand up against this , the changing of the birth certificates, the systemic racism hoax, etc.
And this is the perfect example of why you didn't do it. IF you stand up for common sense, you are labelled a bigot. If they are going to screw over middle school shotputters in WV over this, they'll certainly fire you from your 125k year office job in Philly.
On fiscal issue, wars, etc. I would vote left but I can't because of these cultural sh**.
THe reality is the left is full of cowards because a bunch of far left terrorists control things. Michael Brown wasn't killed by some racist cop. Even the Washington Post admits "Hands up, don't shoot" was a lie.
Cops have a tough job. They are doing the best they can. Even in Baltimore, most of the cops involved with Freddy Grey were black and they also were acquitted.
On the border, we are seeing the same thing. Trump statesd something obvious - we need a wall. But because it wasn't PC, the dems went crazy. Now 20 million illegals later, both parties want it.
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.
^^^ Nailed it .
Some people think the OP calling this a Constitutional issue was hyperbole. Far from it. During the whole Lia Thomas thing, I kept wondering, "Why don't all the other women just sit on the blocks and let Lia swim the whole race on her own and then agree to race from there? Or all false start?"
These WV junior high girls have more common sense than everyone in the Ivy League. Bravo.
They didn't do anything mean. And kudos to them for that.
If I was still coaching and one of my athletes wanted to compete (and dominate) in the girls division as every single varsoty athlete I coached probably would have been an NCAA girls champion, I think I'd have done it. But in a respectful way, I'd tell them it made no sense. They are biologically male.
These girls let their feelings be known very politely and should not be suspended. It's really outrageous.
“I dislike boys competing in girls sports but I will vote to continue it.”
Imagine having a brain that thinks this trans stuff is more important than a treasonous ex-president trying to regain his office and promising revenge on everyone his sad little brain thinks has wronged him.
As someone who have never voted for Trump, which I assume is also the case for you, are you not smart enough to realize that it's insanity like this that makes Trump a viable candidate in the first place?
It's like immigration. Trump said we need a wall. He was widely ripped for being racist. Trump very well may be racist but his idea that we have to stop illegal immigration is now obviously correct.
I must admit I"m not seriously considering voting for a guy who would love to be a dictator (I don't think anyone would let him) because he's got more common sense that Biden and is willing to say things that 90% of americans won't say as the radical left will go crazy.
Why shouldn’t Becky compete in the category the governing body has decided is the right one for her? Why should she have to worry about something that the adults in charge are responsible for? Because a few snowflakes don’t like trans kids? Sounds like their problem and not hers.
But the governing body for school sports in West Virgiina did not decide that the female category of sports is the right one for Becky Pepper Jackson. Nor did any other body in the state. In fact, the powers-that-be and voters in West Virginia have made it clear that most of them do not believe the female category of sport is the right one for males like Becky Pepper Jackson.
In 2021, by an overwhelming majority, the state legislature of West Virginia passed a law called the Save Women's Sports Act that expressly prohibits males from playing and competing in female school sports.
Becky Pepper Jackson - represented by attorneys from the ACLU and prestigious private law firms - went to court to fight the West Virginia law. Jackson was backed in these efforts by a vast number of powerful civil rights organizations, special interest groups and the Biden administration. (A phalanx of attorneys from the civil rights division of Biden's Department of Justice submitted an amicus brief supporting Jackson.)
Two weeks ago, in mid-April, two out of three (male) judges on the three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeal, 4th Circuit that heard Becky Pepper Jackson's challenge to the West Virginia Save Women's Sports Act issued a ruling saying they decided that an exception to the WV law should be made for Jackson.
The third judge on the panel that heard Jackson's case issued a strongly-worded dissenting opinion saying he vehemently disagreed with his two colleagues.
The girls who decided to forfeit rather than compete against Jackson at the track meet because Jackson is male were protesting the ruling made by the two federal judges who decided an exception to the WV Save Women's Sports Act should be made for Jackson. The ruling of those two judges runs counter to the wishes of the majority of the people in West Virginia and directly contravenes WV state law passed by the state legislature with the support of most of the public.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
You are part of the problem. Why are you "voting blue up and down"? Is that your team? No matter what sort of idiocy they inflict on this country, you're still voting blue. Idiot.
You actually raise a very important point here. When one side is voting for stupid stuff like boys competing in girls' sports, and the other side advocates suspending the constitution and attempts a violent overthrow of our government, who do you vote for?
If you think that defining girls and women out of existence (which is what Biden essentially did with the new Title IX rules) is an issue that stops at sports, you're missing the big picture.
The middle school track meet controversy may go to the Supreme Court.
The middle school girls who stepped out of the ring instead of throwing the shot against a biological male have now been banned from future competitions.
How is that even constitutional? I'm trying to think of analogies. But the school district is essentially saying they can ban kids who don't try their hardest in a sport from competing again?
I can see how the track coach might have rules or whatnot but can a school district restrict kids from not trying their hardest from competing again?
Don't kids have a right to compete? Say I'm a basketball player and I don't like my coach. And I say "I'm just going to walk on the court" when put in the game. I do that. The coach has a right to not put me in the game because I'm not competitive but I don't think the school district has a right to say I can't play in another game again because they don't like my attitude.
We've updated our BetterRunningShoes.com web site to make it easier to find good deals on the best shoes. To keep it great we need new shoe reviews from you.