'Girls must compete against girls': Christian school forfeits state championships over male player on girls' volleyball team



A high school girls' volleyball team in California refused to play in a tournament match after learning their opponent has a male athlete on their team.

Stone Ridge Christian School was set to play San Francisco Waldorf in the California Interscholastic Federation State Girls Volleyball Championship playoffs. However, after learning the San Francisco team had a male player, the team has announced its intention to forfeit.

A copy of a school letter sent to parents, posted on X, revealed that the school was standing on its religious beliefs as the reason to not participate.

"As many of you know, our girls won on Wednesday and advanced to the state playoffs," the letter dated November 15 began. "Unfortunately, we were just informed that our opponent, San Francisco Waldorf, has a male athlete playing for their team."

"We believe God's Word is authoritative and infallible. It is Truth. And as Genesis makes clear, God wonderfully and immutably created each person as male or female," the letter continued.

"We do not believe sex is changeable and we do not intend to participate in events that send a different message," it added.

The message concluded by expressing a "duty and responsibility" for the safety of the students, expressing that standing on their beliefs "means more" than the game.

The school then asked recipients to congratulate the student-athletes.

'We will always stand for Biblical truth.'

The male student was identified by outlet Reduxx as Henry Hanlon, a senior who also plays on the Waldorf girls' basketball team.

Hanlon has likely sparked previous forfeits in basketball, particularly from the Islamic school Averroes High School, which declined to specify the reason for its forfeiture.

In a statement to Blaze News, Stone Ridge said it intends to stand for what the school believes is the truth.

"We will always stand for Biblical truth and what is right."

"Girls must compete against girls for fairness safety and truth," the school added.

Stone Ridge has a history of going against the grain in the ultra-liberal state of California. In 2021, it was one of three schools to receive a two-year playoff ban in high school football for playing while COVID-19 shutdowns were in effect.

Capital Christian, Ripon Christian, and Stone Ridge received bans, in addition to their teams and athletic departments being placed on probation.

Sac-Joaquin Section school district said at the time that while it "understood that the postponement of interscholastic athletics" was "frustrating," it expected all schools to follow the rules set forth by the governor's office.

Commissioner Michael Garrison called the shutdown a "public safety issue" and expressed disappointment that the schools did not follow directives.

Stone Ridge is reportedly seeking counsel for the volleyball debacle from Alliance Defending Freedom.

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Thank You To All The Men Who Voted ‘For My Daughter’

Men did 'step up' for their daughters and for women everywhere, but not in the way that these sobbing women on Instagram demanded.

Catholic high school girls' soccer team boycotts game against school with infamous male player



A Catholic high school girls' soccer team in New Hampshire refused to play against another school with a male on its team.

Bishop Brady High School in Concord took a stand against Kearsage Regional High School, which has a boy on its girls' team despite state law prohibiting such participation.

The Kearsage Regional school board reportedly has voted 6-1 in favor of allowing Jacques and other boys to play on the same teams as girls.

Bishop Brady girls refused to show up for the game Friday, Fox News said, citing multiple reports.

The team from Kearsarge Regional High School features a male star athlete named Maelle Jacques, who plays goalkeeper. The boy is already well known for making headlines after winning a state championship in the girls' high jump in February.

Jacques is reportedly 6'1" tall and has sparked outrage with at least one other team in the region. The Hillsboro-Deering High School soccer team refused to play against Kearsage just three weeks prior — perhaps signaling a trend that young women in the state will not stand for unfairness.

Despite the New Hampshire state law, a federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama granted an injunction Sept. 10 allowing two male athletes to continue playing with female athletes — and even to change in the same locker room as female athletes — until a final ruling has been made. Judge Landya McCafferty was appointed in 2013.

The other athlete in question, Parker Tirrell, plays for Plymouth Regional High School.

Plymouth was the center of controversy when parents of students at Bow High School decided to show their support for female athletes by wearing wristbands with "XX" on them when their school played against a team with the boy.

School officials reportedly stopped the game, demanded parents take off the wristbands, and had police issue "no trespass" orders against parents.

"My daughter's playing in the homecoming game this weekend, and I'm banned," a parent said at the time. "I can't watch her play in homecoming — which is ridiculous," the father added.

The Kearsage Regional school board reportedly has voted 6-1 in favor of allowing Jacques and other boys to play on the same teams as girls.

Fed up

Women across the country have become fed up with playing against males in their sports, with five different women's volleyball teams in the NCAA forfeiting matches against San Jose State University, which has a male athlete on the women's team.

"The vast majority of us decided that this isn't right, [that] we need to protect women's sports, and we're going to forfeit," Nevada's team captain Sia LiiLii told Blaze News.

At the same time, a group of former athletes and legal activists attended a United Nations General Assembly event and urged the international body to take a stand on behalf of women.

Attorney Kristen Waggoner and Reem Alsalem, the U.N. special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, called for the international sports community to keep men out of women's sports.

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EXCLUSIVE: Woman Tells Sen. Blackburn Her Daughter Was ‘Publicly Humiliated And Degraded’ By Transgender Swimmer

'They are sacrificing girls at the altar of wokeness'

Florida school employee who let son play on girls' volleyball team receives 10-day suspension



An employee at a high school in Southeastern Florida has received a 10-day, unpaid suspension after she apparently violated the state's Fairness in Women’s Sports Act by allowing her teenage son to play on a girls' volleyball team.

For seven years, Jessica Norton worked as a computer information specialist at Monarch High School, about 15 miles or so north of Fort Lauderdale. She also coached the girls' junior varsity volleyball team.

'She knew what the law was, she made a decision not to follow the law, and that needs to have consequence to it.'

But last November, Norton and several other school officials were transferred to other district sites after news broke that Norton's son, who claims to be transgender, was playing on the girls' varsity volleyball team. Norton had also allegedly indicated that her son was "female" on a form asking about his sex at birth, as Blaze News previously reported.

Back in March, a professional standards committee recommended that Norton be assessed a 10-day suspension. However, then-Superintendent Licata and current Superintendent Howard Hepburn overruled that decision and recommended termination instead.

The Broward County School Board, which lobbied against the Fairness in Women's Sports Act, has wrangled over Norton's case for past several weeks. On Tuesday, the board voted 5-4 in favor of a 10-day, unpaid suspension as well as removing Norton from her position as a computer information specialist.

'I didn’t quit when I’m pretty sure that they wanted me to just resign and say I’m done.'

Before the final vote, however, members on both sides of the issue spoke their piece.

Chair Lori Alhadeff insisted that termination was the only way to deter other district employees from committing similar FWSA violations. "If we do not terminate, then others would then be left to believe that they can, too, break the law, and I have a problem with that," Alhadeff said.

Board member Brenda Fam likewise insisted on terminating Norton, referring to her as an "LGBTQ+ advocate" and likening her apparent falsification of her son's records regarding gender to giving a false address to allow a child to attend a better school, an act that is a crime in Florida. "I think what happened is criminal, in my opinion," Fam said.

"This was not a question about her son or her family. It was an issue about what she did as an employee and how she harmed others," Fan added.

Jessica Norton and her husband, Gary Norton — who both attended the meeting Tuesday — walked out of the room after Fam allegedly "misgendered" their son. Fam insisted she was just quoting from a news article.

Board member Debbi Hixon also took issue with Norton allegedly falsifying her son's records but stopped short of calling for Norton's termination. "She knew what the law was, she made a decision not to follow the law, and that needs to have consequence to it," Hixon stated before noting that this was Norton's "first offense."

"We would not terminate someone on their first offense."

Other members expressed support for and sympathy with Norton's cause.

Board member Sarah Leonardi claimed that Norton, a woman who authorized giving her son puberty blockers when he was just 11 and estrogen thereafter, had not caused any real harm to anyone.

"Ms. Norton did not abuse a child. She did not harm a child. She did what she thought was in the best interest of her daughter," Leonardi said.

Jeff Holness simply stated, "The child has suffered enough, and so has this family, I think we need to move forward."

Following the vote, Norton expressed relief that she still had a job and defiance that she had been suspended. "I did nothing wrong. Nothing," she said.

"I fought for her," Norton continued. "I didn’t back down. I didn’t quit when I’m pretty sure that they wanted me to just resign and say I’m done."

Norton did not indicate whether she would return to work in the district. Her son is now 16 and attends virtual school. He was previously class president and homecoming princess at Monarch High School.

According to WTVJ, several of the boy's former teammates said they either knew or at least suspected he was a male but never showered or changed clothes near him. They also added that they did not have a problem playing alongside a boy.

The Fairness in Women's Sports Act, signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021, forbids males to play on sports teams designated for females only.

The state athletic commission fined Monarch High School $16,500 in connection with Norton's son. The school could also face lawsuits in the future, should a female who did not make the team later claim she was denied a chance for scholarships, the AP reported.

Blaze News reached out to Gov. DeSantis for comment on Norton's suspension but did not receive a response.

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Florida school district employee faces termination after she let her son play on girls' volleyball team



A woman in Florida may soon be fired from her job with the Broward County school district after she apparently allowed her son to play on the girls' volleyball team at his high school.

Last November, Jessica Norton was one of several members of the faculty and staff at Monarch High School near Fort Lauderdale to be reassigned to jobs at "non-school sites" after then-Superintendent Peter Licata discovered that a boy may have been playing on the school's girls' volleyball team, as Blaze News previously reported.

'I saw the light in my daughter’s eyes gleam with future plans of organizing and attending prom, participating and leading senior class traditions, speaking at graduation, and going off to college.'

That boy turned out to be Norton's son, though she routinely refers to him as her "daughter." She also indicated that his name and gender have both been legally changed, and Florida law does permit minors to legally change their gender on birth certificates and driver's licenses so long as they have parental consent, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

However, another Floridian law, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, signed into law in 2021, forbids biological males like Norton's son from joining sports teams reserved for women and girls. Not only did Norton apparently violate this statute by knowingly permitting her son, now 16, to play on the girls' team, but she also allegedly kept his gender listed as "female" on school records and checked "female" on a form asking about his sex at birth.

Norton was an information management specialist at Monarch as well as the school's junior varsity volleyball coach, though whether her son played on her team or another volleyball team is unclear. She was then transferred to a district facility where she was assigned janitorial tasks in defiance of a district collective bargaining agreement which requires her to be given clerical work comparable to her original position, she alleged.

Meanwhile, an initial district investigation into whether she violated the FWSA failed to clear her of wrongdoing, escalating her case to a professional standards committee. In March, that committee recommended that Norton receive a 10-day suspension, but then-Superintendent Licata and current Superintendent Howard Hepburn overruled that decision and recommended termination instead.

The Broward County School Board was scheduled to consider her termination at a meeting on Tuesday, but that agenda item was pulled a few days before. No explanation for the last-minute change was given.

Nevertheless, Norton and her husband, Gary, attended the meeting where Norton proceeded to sing her own praises. "I don’t have to tell you about all the heart that I bring to the Monarch High School community. The public statements of support that you have received on my behalf tell the story of who I am and what I have meant to countless students, colleagues, and families at Monarch High School," she gushed.

She also congratulated herself on how well she has handled the investigation into her alleged FWSA violation. "For 203 days, I have been forthright and honest," said the woman who calls her son a girl, "and have not been treated with a shred of respect or simple decency."

She even cast herself as the "hero" in her son's transgender drama. "It’s all right if I’m the villain in [the administration's] story because I am the hero in my daughter's story," she averred.

Norton also spent considerable time explaining how her son was "flourishing" at Monarch High while masquerading as a girl. "I saw the light in my daughter’s eyes gleam with future plans of organizing and attending prom, participating and leading senior class traditions, speaking at graduation, and going off to college with the confidence and joy that any student like her would after a successful and enriching high school experience," she claimed.

That "light was extinguished" when her son was "outed" as transgender last fall, Norton insisted. "Not one person in the District who is responsible for her checked-in on her safety or well-being," she complained. "They claim to care about all students but they didn’t care about my child."

Norton's fate with the district is now scheduled to be considered at the school board meeting next month. Her son, whose identity has not been released, currently attends virtual school.

Norton also has two older children. Their genders are unknown.

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Crowd boos as boy wins girls' state championship track and field race in Oregon



A boy pretending to be a girl has officially won a girls' track and field state championship in Oregon, but as he was pronounced the winner, race spectators showed their disapproval by booing — loudly.

Aayden Gallagher, a 10th-grade student at McDaniel High School in Portland, has been making a name for himself in girls' track and field competitions this spring. As Blaze News previously reported, Gallagher won a 200M heat by more than five seconds last month. Then at the Portland Interscholastic League Championships a few weeks later, he took home gold in the girls' 200M and 400M races, assuring himself a spot in the state championships.

'The roar and standing ovation for Donelson may surpass anything that comes next week at the Prefontaine Classic. Or, yes, the Olympic Trials.'

Well, the Oregon state championships have since come and gone, and Gallagher once again bested the competition. In the girls' 200M sprint, he turned on the jets with about 30M to go to sneak past Roosevelt High School sophomore Aster Jones and finish in first with a time of 23.82 seconds, about .2 seconds ahead of Jones. DyeStat called it "one of the fastest times in state history."

As Gallagher crossed the finish line, members of the crowd protested his win by loudly booing. The boos and jeers were so overwhelming that multiple outlets have remarked upon them. LibsofTikTok shared a video of the race — and the crowd's reaction — on X:

This is Aayden Gallagher. He’s a boy who thinks he’s a girl and just came in 1st place in the women’s 200m Oregon State Championship.

Listen to the audience’s loud BOOs as they announce him as the winner!

People are sick of this madness! pic.twitter.com/wke0CTHFl6
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 19, 2024

Several outlets have also reported that Gallagher has recently needed "extra security" at practice and in competition and that this security detail whisked Gallagher off the track immediately following his victory, preventing him from shaking hands with his female competitors.

"There was extra security in place for that ceremony. But it did not take away the air of blatant transphobia that was circulating around the stadium," one attendee told Outsports.

The boos and jeers reportedly continued when Gallagher later stepped to the top of the podium to collect his gold medal.

By contrast, the audience roared with approval on Saturday when two-time defending champion Josie Donelson of Lake Oswego held off Gallagher in the 400M by just .15 seconds to win her third gold medal in the race. "The roar and standing ovation for Donelson may surpass anything that comes next week at the Prefontaine Classic. Or, yes, the Olympic Trials," DyeStat wrote.

Though Tyler Kelleher, the athletic director at McDaniel High School, and Ryan Keene, the school's track coach, have helped Gallagher dominate girls' track events, at least one Oregon coach was frustrated that a male has been allowed to compete against girls at the state championships.

"This is destructive to girls sports," the unidentified coach told DyeStat in response to a question about Gallagher's 200M win.

Gallagher declined to speak with the media on Saturday, DyeStat reported. Kelleher and Keene did not respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

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Influential high school administrator in Hawaii shrugs as boy competes in girls' track and field state championships



At least one male student was permitted to compete in the high school girls' track and field state championships in Hawaii last weekend, but a high-ranking official who helps determine state policies regarding high school athletics does not believe the male participant created an unfair competition.

Dean Cevallos is the principal of Kea'au High School, near Hilo on the Island of Hawaii. He is also the president of the Big Island Interscholastic Federation and the vice president of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, which means he has power over the way high school athletics in his state are governed.

According to an X thread from the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, 'several' of the girls' relay teams at Kea'au High School — the same high school that Cevallos oversees — had two males on them, and at least one of those relay teams participated in the state championship

Cevallos told Island News that he knew a trans-identifying athlete — presumed to be a boy presenting as a girl — would be participating in the state's track and field competition but said that trans-identifying athletes competing as their gender identity does not violate Title IX or the spirit of fair play.

"I'm not troubled," Cevallos said. "I've read Title IX. I know what its contents are. I don't have an issue with it. I'm not going to interpret what it is that we as a Department of Education are asked to follow. I try to make it fair for all my students, whatever we do, and I make sure we follow our policies."

The Hawaii State Department of Education, Civil Rights Compliance Branch — which adopted "respect diversity" as its official mission — considers "gender identity and gender expression" to be subdivisions of the protected "sex" category.

Cevallos claimed he had not received any complaints about trans-identifying athletes participating in cross-sex competition and did not know how many such athletes would participate in the 2024 state track and field championships.

According to an X thread from the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, "several" of the girls' relay teams at Kea'au High School — the same high school that Cevallos oversees — had two males on them, and at least one of those relay teams participated in the state championship. Kea'au High School even went so far as to give one of those two trans-identifying boys its female Outstanding Athlete award, ICONS claimed.

ICONS further reported that the mother of one of the two Kea'au High School trans athletes insisted she actually has two sons on the Kea'au track team who identify as girls, though one of them apparently competes against other boys. "Two of these BEAUTIFUL transgender GIRLS are MY DAUGHTERS," an account named _sheylyn_ wrote on social media in response to Island News' report, according to a screenshot from ICONS.

"These are KIDS we are talking bout," sheylen added.

"Because of this [report] my daughter does not feel safe!!"

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Men allowed back in women's sports in Nassau County after ruling from state supreme court judge



A New York state supreme court judge has issued a ruling that will allow males to join female-only sports teams in Nassau County once again.

In February, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed an executive order that barred trans-identifying males from joining female-only sports teams that use county athletic facilities for competition, as Blaze News previously reported.

"Lack of courage from a judge who didn’t want to decide the case on its merits."

However, many LGBTQ-related organizations immediately cried foul, and New York Attorney General Letitia James vowed to fight the executive order in court. In a cease and desist letter issued days later, James called Blakeman's executive order "discriminatory," "transphobic," and "illegal."

Now, it seems James and other LGBTQ+ supporters have won the first round of legal battles in this case. On Friday, in response to a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Long Island Roller Rebels, a women’s roller derby league based in Nassau County, Justice Francis Ricigliano of the New York Supreme Court claimed that Blakeman lacked the authority to enact the policy regarding women's and girls' sports and therefore overruled it.

"This Court finds the County Executive acted beyond the scope of his authority as the Chief Executive Officer of Nassau County," Ricigliano wrote in the 13-page decision.

The judge claimed that the county legislature must first pass such a bill before the county executive can sign it into law. Thus, Ricigliano apparently did not consider the merits of the case but only the procedures undergirding it.

"Lack of courage from a judge who didn’t want to decide the case on its merits. Unfortunately girls and women are hurt by the court," Blakeman said about the judge and the ruling. He confirmed that he intends to appeal.

Meanwhile, AG James is celebrating the decision, calling it "a major victory" in the fight against discrimination. "My office will keep working to ensure every New Yorker is free to be who they are," she wrote on X.

— (@)

Amanda Urena — the vice president of Long Island Roller Rebels, who competes under the name Curly Fry, identifies as queer, and prefers they/them pronouns — likewise considers the judge's ruling "a victory" for inclusivity in the fight against "transphobia." "Today’s decision is a victory for those who believe that transgender people have the right to participate in sports just like everyone else," Urena said.

"County Executive Blakeman’s order tried to punish us just because we believe in inclusion and stand against transphobia. Trans people belong everywhere, including in sports, and they will not be erased."

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Boy smokes the competition in girls' track and field heat in Oregon: 'Getting more and more masculine'



A 10th-grade boy in Oregon cruised past his female competitors in a girls' sprint heat over the weekend, likely securing a spot that would otherwise have gone to a girl in the upcoming state competition.

On Saturday, Aayden Gallagher, a boy who claims to be a girl, represented McDaniel High School in several girls' races in a track and field competition at the Sherwood Need for Speed Classic in Sherwood, Oregon, about 15 miles southwest of Portland.

One of those races was a 200M sprint heat. Video of the race shows Gallagher quickly gaining a considerable edge on the other runners. "Great knees! Great drive!" the announcer gushes just moments before Gallagher crosses the finish line. No other runner is even in the camera shot by that point.

A male just won the Girls 200m Varsity in Sherwood, Oregon. He set a new record for the girls race.

These high school girls just had their dream stolen from them because the school is catering the delusions of a boy who pretends to be a girl.

He is a cheater.

Video :… pic.twitter.com/DzQZ7fN5kv
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 14, 2024

Gallagher officially clocked in at 25.49, while the second-place finisher in that heat did not cross for another five seconds. Gallagher easily won the heat but did not finish with the best time in the event. In a separate heat, sophomore Aster Jones of Roosevelt High School beat Gallagher's time by more than a second at 24.43, a personal record for her.

Gallagher finished in second place in the 400M race that day as well. He also participated in some relays.

Gallagher may not have had the best times that day, but he still likely assured himself a spot in the state competition next month. "He will beat all of the girls, (except maybe 1) break records and be called a hero — for being a male who races against the girls and wins," wrote an X account called Let_Oregon_Learn, which reportedly belongs to an exasperated parent of a female competitor.

Gallagher appears to have taken advantage of a policy from the Oregon School Activities Association, which allows students to compete according to their "gender identity" in most cases, but he admitted that, as of a year ago, he had not yet received any cross-sex hormones. He expressed hope that he would someday though.

"I feel like [hormone therapy] will make me a lot more confident," he said, according to his school's newspaper.

"Right now I’m just going to keep on getting more and more masculine," he said. "More facial hair, stuff like that. And I don’t want that. Estrogen and other hormones and getting vocal training would make me a lot happier and more confident."

While many on social media are quick to lay at least some of the blame on the girls who choose to compete against a boy, Let_Oregon_Learn claimed that in most cases, the girls do not know ahead of time that a boy will participate in their race. "The girls did not know they were running against a boy until the race was done," the parent wrote on X. "This is the reality of allowing boys to compete against girls-most do not realize it until the competition has either started or is over."

Let_Oregon_Learn and others believe that something needs to change soon. Otherwise, males will dominate athletic competitions reserved for females. "We must demand a 3rd category in high school competitions, or races must be by biological gender. Anything else is making a mockery of female athletics," the parent said.

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