A New Hampshire town was devastated by its local school district’s response to two men protesting a transgender athlete.
Anthony Foote and Kyle Fellers attended a girls’ high school football game in Bow on Sept. 17 wearing pink armbands with the letters ‘XX’ – a reference to the chromosomes associated with biological females – in a silent protest against an athlete transgender in the opposite field. equipment.
Bow School District officials stopped the game and removed the two parents, then issued them no trespassing orders on school property. reports the New Hampshire Journal.
Superintendent Marcy Kelley told them that wearing the bracelets violates the school’s policy against ‘threatening, harassing or intimidating… any person,’ as well as the policy ‘that no person ‘shall impede, delay, interrupt or otherwise interfere with any school activity”. “‘
Some in the city applauded the school district’s response, but others have shown support for the two parents, arguing that the school district violated their First Amendment right to free speech.
Anthony Foote (pictured) showed up at a women’s soccer game on Sept. 17 wearing pink armbands with the letters ‘XX’ – a reference to the chromosomes associated with biological women – in a silent protest against a transgender athlete on the team. contrary.
Bow School District Superintendent Marcy Kelley told them that wearing the bracelets violates the school’s policy against “threatening, harassing or intimidating… any person.”
In fact, at another football game in Bow, where no transgender athletes were playing, at least 20 spectators from across the swing state showed up wearing pink armbands. according to the Concord Monitor.
Supporters also asked the superintendent at a Sept. 30 Board of Education meeting to rescind the men’s ban order and issue an apology, with some arguing it would help save the city money on legal fees.
“I’m disappointed in every single one of you,” Bow resident Steve Herbert told the board. ‘You silenced someone who had a different opinion.
‘Nothing bad happened. There were no voices, there were no bad words. It wasn’t addressed to anyone.
He went on to say that the councilor’s actions will be remembered when they seek re-election.
“I don’t think you deserve to be up there,” Herbert said. ‘So I hope you enjoyed your time on the board.
“I’m personally going to do everything I can to make sure we have unbiased people who can read something as simple as the First Amendment,” he promised.
Parents and community members spoke against and in favor of protesters at a school board meeting on September 30.
Some fans even wore their own pink armbands at another soccer match.
Others, however, supported the school district’s decision, saying it was harmful to the transgender soccer player on the Plymouth Regional High School girls’ soccer team.
“My concern is that people are yelling at someone on the sideline, that could be very triggering,” Melynie Klunk said, adding that “it could be really scary for each of those kids, because I have to tell them: I didn’t worry that’s why while I was growing up.’
Alex Zerba, mother of a varsity soccer player, also said she and the other parents don’t want Fellers and Foote “supporting our girls like you are.”
“We ask you to stop protesting,” he said at the board meeting. “It’s hurting our girls.”
“This is not the right way to do things,” Zerba continued. “If you have a problem with a transgender (person) on a team, bring it up with your legislators.”
Foote and another man who protested, Kyle Fellers, were banned from school property afterward.
Instead, Fellers, Foote and his wife Nicole are suing the school district, accusing it of stifling their constitutional rights.
They hope to get a federal judge to stop the school from unconstitutionally using school policies to restrict what they have described as non-disruptive expression of their political or social views. WMUR Reports.
“They would like to wear this bracelet to express themselves silently but visibly, but they cannot do so now because they do not want to risk being kicked out of football matches,” their lawyer, Del Kolde, told the local news channel.
“And it puts them in a position that is unfair and unconstitutional.”
Foote’s no-entry order was lifted on Sept. 21, but Fellers’ order remains in effect until the end of the fall sports season.
