Two teenage athletes were branded with Nazi comparisons by a school official for standing up for fairness in girls’ sports at their Riverside high school. Their crime? Wearing “Save Girls’ Sports” T-shirts while expressing their belief that males should not compete in female sports. The uproar began after a male student identifying as female joined their high school cross country team and began using the girls’ locker room—a situation that many felt compromised both fairness and safety.
The controversy intensified when Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Amanda Chann shockingly compared their shirts to swastikas, equating their advocacy for women’s rights to the symbols of one of history’s most notorious regimes. These young women and their parents, however, refused to be silenced. Standing firm, the families have now filed a lawsuit against the school, highlighting the violation of the girls’ constitutional rights to free speech and privacy.
Among those rallying behind these brave young women was California Family Council’s Outreach Director Sophia Lorey, a former collegiate athlete. She joined local parents at a heated school board meeting last week to challenge the school’s policies and treatment of the students. Lorey reminded the board that protecting women’s rights and dignity is not hateful—it’s just.
She condemned the athletic director’s comparison of the girls’ message to wearing a swastika, calling it “appalling” and demanding accountability. Emphasizing the biological differences between males and females, she stated, “Biology is not bigotry. Physiological reality is undeniable, and no matter how hard females work, males are statistically faster and stronger.” Lorey urged the district to uphold Title IX protections, ensuring safety, fairness, and privacy for girls in sports, and expressed confidence that the girls will prevail in their lawsuit.
The lawsuit against the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) and Martin Luther King High School, brought by Advocates for Faith and Freedom attorneys, highlights blatant violations of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as Title IX protections. The plaintiffs, Kaitlyn, a ninth-grade cross-country athlete, and Taylor, an eleventh-grade team captain, were censored for wearing shirts that stated “Save Girls’ Sports” and “It’s Common Sense. XX ≠ XY,” messages advocating for fair competition based on biological sex. School officials not only demanded they remove the shirts, comparing the messages to hate symbols, but also allowed policies that ousted T.S. from varsity competition to accommodate a biological male transgender athlete who failed to meet qualifying standards.
The lawsuit asserts that RUSD’s selective enforcement of its dress code suppresses students’ freedom to express their beliefs, while its failure to uphold Title IX protections denies female athletes fair opportunities in sports. “We will not allow boys to take over girls’ sports or let woke policies silence young women fighting for fair competition,” said attorney Julianne Fleischer. “This case is about protecting equal opportunities and the freedom to speak out—values that should be upheld, not suppressed, in our schools.” The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to restore their constitutional rights, a judgment affirming Title IX protections, and compensation for the damages caused by these discriminatory policies.
In 1972, when Title IX was enacted, only 1 in 27 girls participated in sports. Today, that number is closer to 1 in 3—a monumental shift. Yet this progress is now at risk of being erased. The bravery of these young girls is a continuation of the fight begun by generations past, proving that history repeats itself—and sometimes, so do the heroes.
A 16 year old female athlete who has a MALE on her team spoke out at the RUSD board meeting.
— Sophia Lorey (@SophiaSLorey) November 22, 2024
“And it is not OK that I have to be in a position where I'm going to practice and having to see a male in booty shorts and having to see that around me. As a 16-year-old girl, I don't… pic.twitter.com/QSHJotvTBJ
