The father of a California high school student forced to compete with a transgender student had a poignant message for Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Dan Slavin said his daughter Kaitlyn was punished for protesting trans athletes after her boyfriend was banned from the Martin Luther King High cross country team.
Ninth-grader Kaitlyn and 11th-grader Taylor claim school officials told them that students wearing t-shirts protesting trans athletes appeared to be wearing a Nazi swastika.
The girls wore shirts that read “Protect Girls’ Sports” and “It’s Common Sense XX ≠ had made an effort like Taylor. .
Slavin said that when he and other parents heard about the trans student joining the team, they contacted the school but were turned away because of the state’s laws on transgender athletes.
“If nothing changes here in the next few years, this should absolutely be part of the next election,” Slavin said Fox News.
‘I want the policy to change. I keep saying the system is broken, and it does more harm than good. And I want people to understand that and admit that.
“Sometimes we make mistakes, and it’s okay to admit it, but we have to make changes and get out of the mistakes we make.”
High school students Kaitlyn and Taylor claim school officials told them that students wearing t-shirts protesting trans athletes appeared to be wearing Nazi swastika
Taylor was fired from the Martin Luther King High cross country team and replaced by a transgender student
California state law prohibits discrimination against students on the basis of sex, gender identity, and gender expression, and specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in physical education and athletics.
Newsom signed a law in July that bans public school districts from requiring staff to notify parents when their children change the pronouns they use in the classroom.
“I would love to have lunch with Newsom and talk to him about this and see how that goes,” Slavin said.
“I would probably just tell him that I understand that you want everyone to feel included, but you miss how many people it actually affects and hurts.”
The girls and their parents are suing the Riverside Unified School District, alleging their freedom of speech was violated.
“School officials alleged that the messages on plaintiff’s shirts created the same level of hostility as a student wearing a swastika in the presence of a Jewish student,” the lawsuit said.
‘It was definitely painful. We’re not trying to be hateful in any way, we’re just wearing a shirt that expresses what we believe in and trying to raise awareness of a situation,” Kaitlyn shared. Fox News.
“It was not targeted at any individual at all, and the athletic director kept making it seem like it was.”
Slavin said the experience was challenging for his daughter and that she doesn’t have a hateful bone in her body.
Kaitlyn’s father said he wants to talk to Newsom about the effects of his policies and warned it could be a problem for the next election
Their teammate, Kylie Morrow (pictured), 16, made an impassioned plea to the school board at a recent meeting, begging for the trans student to be removed from the team.
‘It’s been tough for her. She has been there with her teammates and her teammate is in tears,” Slavin said.
“She’s tried to find a balance between how she can still love all people, but also how she can raise awareness.
‘The message becomes conflicting as an attack on people, and that’s not what it’s about at all. We want all people to feel love, for all people to feel included, but some people just don’t see the healthy side of it.’
Their teammate, Kylie Morrow, 16, made an impassioned plea to the school board at a recent meeting, begging for the trans student to be removed from the team.
“It feels like my school and the school district are choosing to support one person instead of the entire team,” Morrow said.
“To see the athletic director turn around and tell my teammates that their shirts that say ‘Save Girls Sports’ are being compared to a swastika, that’s not okay.
“These girls feel silenced, they felt silenced, and when they finally did something to speak out against it…” . . they were completely stabbed in the back.”
Morrow added that she felt “unsafe” in a situation where she was forced to share a locker room with a biological male wearing “booty shorts.”
“It’s not okay that I have to be in that position, and I have to see a man in shorts, and have to see that around me, as a 16-year-old girl I don’t see that as a safe environment,” Morrow said.
‘Going into a dressing room and seeing men there, I don’t think that’s safe, I don’t think it’s safe to go to the toilet when there are boys there. It’s not okay. I’m a 16 year old girl!’