Fifteen-year-old Tumwater High athlete Frances Staudt refused to take the court in early February after discovering a player on the opposing team who, according to witnesses and later reporting, was biologically male. Frances’ choice to sit out a game she believed put her and her teammates at risk has turned into a national uproar, with the school district launching an investigation and national groups now involved.
Instead of protecting student safety and notifying families ahead of time, Tumwater officials say they followed Washington policy that allows athletes to play consistent with their gender identity — a policy the state’s education office also enforces. Many parents and coaches I talk to see the policy as a one-size-fits-all political litmus test that ignores the realities of contact sports and the privacy concerns of teenage girls.
The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism filed a civil rights complaint on Frances’ behalf, and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has since opened a probe into the district’s handling of the incident. Federal intervention in what should be a local school matter is precisely the kind of overreach that fuels distrust; parents want answers, not bureaucrats wielding investigatory power against a student who voiced a safety concern.
Let’s be blunt: schools are not merely social laboratories for the latest cultural experiment. When a teen says she feels unsafe competing against a biologically male player, common sense would have been to pause, notify families, and offer opt-outs — not to threaten discipline for “misgendering.” The photos and testimony in this case show a school more eager to avoid controversy than to protect its girls.
This fight didn’t happen in a vacuum. The new federal direction on girls’ sports has put local districts between state law, interscholastic rules, and presidential directives, and the result is chaos for kids who just want a level playing field. Whether you cheer or jeer the policy changes from Washington, the bottom line is that young women’s safety, competitive fairness, and parental rights must not be collateral damage in a national culture war.
Americans who value fairness and common sense should be calling on school boards to put protections and transparency ahead of ideology: require parental notification in advance of contested matchups, create reasonable opt-out procedures, and preserve girls’ sports where biological differences matter. If we don’t stand up for these girls now, we’ll be telling every parent that schools will put politics over their children’s safety and future.
