California athletic director compares 'Save Girls Sports' shirts to wearing a swastika, lawsuit claims
Two high school athletes are suing a California school district over being told their shirts about women's sports are akin to wearing Nazi garb.
Cross-country runners Kaitlyn and Taylor from the Martin Luther King High School said they wore T-shirts that read "Save Girls' Sports" on the front and "It's Common Sense. XX ≠ XY" on the back.
The shirts were in protest of a male athlete participating in female athletics who bumped one of the girls from their cross-country team. Although the male didn't consistently attend practices or meet eligibility practices for the varsity team, he allegedly still displaced Taylor (11th grade) from her spot on the squad, the legal complaint claimed.
"There's a transgender student on the team. Why am I getting displaced when I worked so hard and gone to all of the practices, and this student has only attended a few of the practices," Taylor asked.
The girls also allege that school athletic officials told them to remove or conceal the shirts and said they are creating a "hostile" environment. The athletic director even reportedly said wearing their shirts around a transgender student was like wearing a swastika around a Jewish student.
"It was definitely hard to hear because we're by no means trying to be hateful," Kaitlyn (9th grade) told Fox News. "We're just wearing a shirt that expresses what we believe in trying to raise awareness to a situation."
'There are other messages that are allowed that haven't been censored.'
To make matters worse, the girls said the female-identifying boy has been allowed to wear "trans pride" bracelets without reprimand, and other students have been allowed to display similar messaging using an LGBTQ pride flag.
Julianne Fleischer, attorney from Advocates for Faith and Freedom, said other political and social messaging is all over the school and worn by other students, with gay pride flags even hanging in the classrooms.
"There are other messages that are allowed that haven't been censored," Fleischer explained.
The legal complaint went on to describe the male athlete displacing the young girl from her team after transferring from another high school where he broke the school's all-time cross-country record for females.
Taylor was allegedly bumped to junior varsity to make way for the boy, which her family has complained will make her less visible to college scouts due to not being present at high-profile track meets.
Neither the Riverside Unified School District nor Martin Luther King High School responded to Fox News' requests for comment.
The girls are the second set of California high schoolers to take a stand against boys in their competitions in recent weeks.
Girls at the Stone Ridge Christian School refused to play in the state tournament when they learned a boy was playing on an opposing team.
"We will always stand for Biblical truth and what is right," the school said.
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