Tumwater school board follows Trump’s order, bans trans girls from playing on girls teams
The Tumwater School District board of directors voted Thursday to ban trans girls from playing for girls’ sports teams, two weeks after two Tumwater High School girls basketball players sat out their last game in protest of a trans player on the opposing Shelton High team.
The resolution affirming a proposed amendment to WIAA policy was passed with three yes votes. Board President Melissa Beard was the sole vote against, and board member Jill Adams abstained.
The meeting was immediately interrupted and ended by protest from community members who disagreed with the board’s decision.
According to board documents, amendments 7 and 8 to Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) policy ensure “that all student athletes, regardless of sex, gender identity, or gender expression, who meet eligibility criteria are allowed to participate in the ‘Boys/Open Category,’ and to maintain fair and equitable competition, participation in the ‘Girls Category’ is limited to students whose biological sex is female.”
Board President Melissa Beard said she had significant concerns about the resolution.
She said if passed, the resolution would limit participation in girls sports to students whose biological sex is female, and not honor a person’s gender identity that may differ from their biological sex.
Beard said gender identity is a protected class in Washington. Protected classes include race and color, national origin, religion and creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, disability and use of a service animal.
“All of these classes are protected from discrimination. Any prohibition against a student playing in sports based upon gender or gender identity is against the law in Washington State,” she said.
She said when the board members began serving, they all took an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States and the State of Washington. To her knowledge, those haven’t changed.
“Voting for this would be against the oath I took to act in accordance with the law; because this is a state law, there is a process to change laws, and this process is outside this body’s jurisdiction,” Beard said.
Beard said President Trump’s executive orders on trans gender policy must work in conjunction with the laws and do not supersede or negate the laws that are currently on the books. She said the amendments referenced in the resolution are in conflict with current law, and even if the amendments were adopted, WIAA cannot implement them.
The WIAA, which organizes and sets policy for high school sports, is set to consider two proposals in April. One is to create a separate athletic program specifically for transgender athletes, and the other is to keep participation in girls’ sports limited to those assigned female at birth.
Beard said she questions why the board would direct staff to encourage WIAA to go against state law.
She said she’s also firmly opposed to the resolution because of the message it sends to transgender students in Tumwater.
“Since 2016 I’ve advocated for students, staff and families here in the Tumwater School District, and to have a space to be their authentic selves and to live the life that they were meant to lead,” she said. “With transgender students being a part of our district, I’m concerned that this resolution communicates that we do not see these students as an equal part of our community. We owe it to all students to take time to sort this out and find a way so no students are harmed.”
Beard gave the student representatives on the board a chance to comment on the resolution before other board members.
Cody Coleman said he thinks it’s “a little disgusting” the board was even entertaining a motion on the topic. He said “it should be obvious” the board shouldn’t pass the resolution.
Board member Jill Adams said the board is caught between a rock and a hard place, and she argued they have to follow President Trump’s executive order banning trans girls from participating in sports. She said following his executive order is the same as following the Constitution and law.
“We may not agree with the executive order,” Adams said. “I think probably a lot of us do not agree with the executive order regarding men’s and women’s sports. However, historically, almost every President has had executive orders.”
She said she supports divergent ways of living, but it’s a tough situation for her to get into.
The board then took its vote to pass the resolution, with board members Casey Taylor, Darby Kaikkonen and Ty Kuehl voting for the change in policy. None of the board members who voted yes offered any comment.
The vote was immediately met with dissent from the public. The meeting ended while the crowd chanted, “Trans rights are human rights.”
Public comments
During the meeting’s public comment period, parent Sara Wall said there isn’t enough research to support the board wanting to ban trans girls from participating in sports.
Wall said there are already issues with harassment and bullying in the schools, and this resolution would only further the problem. She said it seems like the Tumwater students and the Shelton girl are being used as political arms to further an adult agenda.
Wall said the reasoning the board seems to have for passing the resolution is that current policies aren’t safe or fair. She questioned what evidence the board has that transgender students are creating unsafe gameplay.
“Are trans students more likely to cause injury than their cisgender counterparts? I hear about protecting biological girls in bathrooms and locker rooms; have there been assaults documented from trans girls in these environments? Are there solutions that don’t involve removing a previously held right to play?” she said.
She said in her research she’s not found evidence to support the board’s assertion that trans girls create an unsafe game.
Tela Hogle said she works in three schools in the county through Pizza Klatch, an LGBTQ+ youth organization that tries to counter the effects of bullying and to keep queer youth alive.
Hogle referenced the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary student who died by suicide last year after being bullied. She said in this case, there’s a trans student in Shelton who was trying to experience “five minutes of trans joy,” and it feels like the board wants to eliminate that.
“I don’t think segregation is the solution to an equity problem around this,” Hogle said.
John Kelly said he hopes when his grandkids start playing team sports that their coaches will look out for every kid’s safety. He said they should ensure safety by looking at kids’ height, weight and muscular strength.
Kelly said nobody has ever had their arm broken by a chromosome, and separating kids by their sex doesn’t keep them safe.
“We all love our children and grandchildren,” he said. “We want them to be safe, and I think the district has been doing very well so far by treating them as individuals and going with kinesiology and common sense, not with politics.”
Kelly said the right’s talk of safety and protecting girls in sports is a red herring.
“It’s a deception that lets us reject the rest of their hateful rhetoric and accept this one little thing that seems kind of reasonable,” he said. “And tomorrow there will be some other little thing, and we’ve said yes to the first thing so now it’s kind of hard to turn around. And step by step, that’s how we get to Auschwitz.”
No one spoke in favor of the policy change.
A change.org petition has been started by some Tumwater parents to recall the school board members who voted to adopt the resolution banning trans girls from playing in sports. The petition, which had 64 signatures Feb. 28, calls for Casey Taylor, Darby Kaikkonen, Jill Adams, and Ty Kuehl to be removed from the board.
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 1:25 PM.
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