The Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) in California hosted a board meeting on Thursday Amid controversy About a transgender cross-country runner at Martin Luther King High School and the students being reprimanded for protesting the athlete's participation.
The board meeting will address recent allegations in a lawsuit that school administrators compared “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts. To the swastika.
Protesters gathered outside the RUSD district office, advocating for and against transgender inclusion.
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Video footage of the meeting that parents provided to California Family Outreach Director Sophia Lurie showed a crowd of people raising a transgender pride flag and wearing T-shirts in similar colors.
Lowry told Fox News Digital that there were a few people outside the venue wearing “Save Girls' Sports” T-shirts, but they were outnumbered by pro-trans activists.
The California Family Council, along with the religious rights law firm Defenders of Faith and Liberty, held a meeting press conference Outside the district office before a board meeting to address the ongoing controversy.
Ryan Starks, the father of a girl at the school named Taylor who is involved in a lawsuit against the school, spoke at the press conference. The lawsuit alleges that Taylor lost her college spot to a transgender athlete and that her T-shirt expressing her opposition to the competing athlete was likened to a swastika.
“It's heartbreaking to see what my daughter went through this season,” Starks said.
“This is unfair. This is completely unfair. It breaks my heart as a father to see my daughter go through this and be stripped of her, and have her come up to me and hug me. And I can't do anything. So, it's heartbreaking.”
An attorney representing Taylor in the lawsuit, Julianne Fleischer, previously told Fox News Digital that the school administrators' rhetoric was “incredibly dangerous.”
“When you have adults comparing the 'Save Girls Sports' message that promotes equality, justice, and common sense — when you have adults comparing that message to the swastika, which represents the genocide of millions of Jews, in reality, there is no … I don't know how you respond to that,” Fleischer said. that”.
Hundreds of students at Martin Luther King High School have begun wearing the T-shirts every Wednesday. The school responded by enacting a dress code that sent many of these students to detention. But that didn't stop them. Students continued to wear the shirts weekly.
The school recently stopped enforcing a t-shirt dress code.
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Officials at nearby Arlington High School, Riverside Polytechnic High School and Romona High School also saw students wearing them, sources told Fox News.
In a statement previously provided to Fox News Digital, RUSD said it allowed the transgender athlete to compete on the team because he must comply with California law.
Students at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, wear T-shirts that say “Save Girls Sports” in protest of a transgender athlete on the cross country team. (Courtesy of Sophia Laurie)
“It is important to remember that RUSD is required to follow California law, which requires that students be allowed to participate in gender-segregated school programs and activities, including sports teams and competitions that align with their gender identity, regardless of gender,” the statement said. “The student.”
“While these matters play out in our courts and in our media, dissent and protests should be directed at those who are in a position to influence those laws and policies, including officials in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento.”
California has had laws in place to protect transgender athletes in women's sports since 2014. That year, AB 1266 went into effectIt grants California students at both the school and college levels the right to “participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and to use facilities consistent with their gender identity, regardless of the sex listed on the pupil’s records.”
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