Tumwater girls sit out of final basketball game in protest of trans Shelton player
Two Tumwater High School girls basketball players sat out of their last game of the year Feb. 6 against Shelton High School because one of Shelton’s team members identifies as a trans woman.
Frances Staudt, 15, is one of the Tumwater students who sat out of the game. She was interviewed with her mother by Brandi Kruse, an internet personality and political commentator. A portion of the interview was shared publicly online.
Staudt told Kruse that while she was warming up for the Feb. 6 game, she saw her mom walk over to her coach. Her mom told the coach that there was a man on the Shelton team. Staudt said, “Sure enough, there was.”
“I made the decision to sit out and I did not play one minute of that game because I have a right to for my safety and I should be allowed to play against girls,” she said.
Her mom said she was told by the school’s athletic director that the districts don’t discriminate, and Andi Rooks on the Shelton team was allowed to play. She said her daughter was being discriminated against by being forced to play against a boy.
She said President Trump recently signed executive orders that restrict transgender rights, including limits on participation in sports and gender-affirming care, and Washington should be following suit.
Tumwater School District spokesperson Laurie Wiedenmeyer said Washington is one of several states with robust anti-discrimination protections, including for LGBTQ+ individuals.
“These laws apply to schools, workplaces, and other areas, and they include protections based on gender identity and expression,” she said. “The state’s legal framework remains valid unless explicitly preempted by federal law, which generally requires Congressional action rather than an executive order.”
Wiedenmeyer also shared the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s inclusivity toolkit. Washington’s sports association was the first in the country to enact policy and practices regarding equitable inclusion of K-12 transgender students in sports and other activities.
Specific to Tumwater schools, policy says before communicating with parents of transgender or gender expansive students, it’s important to ask the student how school employees should refer to the student when talking with their parents and guardians.
“For families who are supportive, using the student’s name and pronoun could be affirming for the student. For parents who are not supportive, or who are not aware of the student’s transition at school, referring to their name and pronoun could be very dangerous,” Policy 3211 reads. “The district will not condone the intentional or persistent refusal to respect a student’s gender identity or gender expression, or inappropriate release of information regarding a student’s transgender or gender expansive status.”
Use of locker rooms by transgender or gender-expansive students is assessed on a case-by-case basis at Tumwater schools.
Shelton Schools spokesperson Katie Diamond said the district has similar policies, but the incident didn’t happen on their district property, so an investigation won’t be conducted. She said district officials also declined to comment on the incident.
Andi and her father Donnie Rooks were also interviewed by Kruse. During the interview, Donnie Rooks said there wouldn’t have been an issue if Staudt hadn’t sensationalized the situation in a social media post. Andi said her intention is to never make someone uncomfortable, and she believes trans athletes shouldn’t be allowed to participate in professional sports.
The Olympian has been unable to reach the Rooks and the Staudts for comment as of Feb. 19.
‘It’s how I’ve always been’
Kruse prefaced the Feb. 18 interview with Andi and her father by stating she’s vehemently against Andi playing against biological girls. Donnie said he and his daughter weren’t there to convince anyone that boys can be girls or girls can be boys, but to present the facts.
Andi said she’s known she was a girl since she was little. Even at 4 years old, she remembers wanting to play with Barbie dolls instead of monster trucks.
“That’s just how I’ve lived my life. It’s just how I’ve always been,” she said. “Like, just something I’ve always just drawn more to. Nobody forced it on me. Nobody was like, ‘Hey, why don’t you try playing with these instead of your monster trucks?’”
Donnie said Andi’s official transition began in second grade, when she started wearing more feminine clothing and growing her hair out.
Kruse said it sounds to her like Andi was indoctrinated by being given the option to be a girl. Andi said it’s something she’s thought about, but she’s never truly questioned her being a girl.
Kruse asked her if it’s something she should question anyway.
“I am a boy. Like, there’s no way around that. That is biologically forever. And I thought like that,” she said. “I’ve never really agreed with it. That’s not who I am. I enjoy putting on a dress, I enjoy doing my hair. I enjoy doing my makeup.”
Andi said she hasn’t had any surgical interventions or gender-affirming procedures, and she hasn’t taken hormones. They were options given to her by her mom, but her dad doesn’t support it. Even now at 18 she’s unsure if she’ll ever take hormones or have surgery.
According to state law, any adolescent may request and receive outpatient treatment without the consent of a parent if they’re 13 or older. Depending the health care provider, patients might be able to get puberty blockers and/or hormone treatment as part of birth control services.
Minors also can talk to their provider about whether they’re sufficiently mature enough to make their own health care decisions, under the Mature Minor doctrine. Also depending on the provider, consultations related to gender identity can be provided to those 13 or older as part of outpatient mental health treatment.
Andi said she doesn’t think minors should have access to gender-affirming treatments at all, without parent permission. She also doesn’t think trans athletes should be allowed to compete at the Olympic level due to biological advantages.
“If they are so big on wanting kids to have that option, maybe 17,” she said of gender-affirming treatment. “I wouldn’t have done it. I would never have done it as a kid at any time.”
Kruse said she has no concern for Andi as an adult identifying as a woman. It’s where her desire to live as a woman interferes with other people that she has concern.
Andi said she doesn’t want to force her lifestyle on others because she wouldn’t want that done to her. But she said she’s always played basketball against girls since she started playing in fourth grade.
She said she didn’t realize Staudt had an issue with her being on the opposing team until she was yelled at during the game.
“Had I known she had an issue? Had she had a conversation with me before the game? I would have sat out,” she said. “The last thing I want to do is make anybody uncomfortable. I don’t want to take anything from anybody. I don’t want to make anybody feel uncomfortable. I just want to play a sports game and have fun, because I do enjoy playing basketball.”
In Kruse’s interview with the Staudts, it was mentioned school officials had a meeting with administration prior to the Feb. 6 game about potential concerns. But Andi said she and her parents weren’t alerted.
Donnie Rooks agreed with Rooks, saying if Staudt’s mother had come to him to have a conversation, he would have respected her beliefs. He said if the Tumwater students hadn’t sensationalized the situation on social media, he doesn’t think the situation would have exploded into a big issue.
Kruse shared a portion of Staudt’s social media post. Staudt wrote, “during a Tumwater High School girls basketball game on Friday, a biological male from the Shelton High School opposing team was brutalizing my teammates, using his biological advantage to clearly and intentionally overpower high school competition.”
Donnie pointed out that Andi isn’t a failed men’s basketball player who moved to play for a women’s team. He said Andi has lived this way for so long, and girl’s basketball is the only sport she’s ever played.
“My actions, in some ways, conflict with some of my beliefs. But that’s life, isn’t it?” he said. “You can’t always live by the word of everything that we believe, because I want my child to have a happy home to come into.”
He said there have been many parents who don’t agree with him allowing Andi to live the way she wants, but then they get to know her and it changes their view.
“There’s a person attached to these transgender individuals,” he said. “We don’t have the answers to all of this. We’re still figuring all this out, and I think this will give her something to really ponder more of, but to have all the answers for the trans community right now, it’s not something we’re prepared to do.”
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