A female high school wrestler who says she was sexually assaulted on the mat by a biological male has filed a Title IX lawsuit against Washington state officials, taking the case to court after prosecutors declined to charge the transgender athlete.
The lawsuit challenging the state’s transgender-athlete policy accused the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Puyallup School District of acting with “deliberate indifference to a known risk of sexual assault.”
“Lies hurt people — in this case, girls,” said the 74-page complaint filed this week in federal court in Tacoma. “Enforcing the lie that boys can be girls, Washington lets boys take girls’ sports and privacy, and, in this case, sexually assault a girl during her own wrestling match — as her mother watched in disbelief.”
Four days earlier, Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett decided against charging the transgender wrestler, a student at Emerald Ridge High School, concluding in a June 5 memo that any such charges “could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Kallie Keeler, a student at Rogers High School in Puyallup, was 15 when she frantically signaled to her mother as she grappled with the transgender wrestler at a Dec. 6 state-sponsored tournament, mouthing the message that her opponent’s fingers were in her “c**chie,” or vagina.
She stopped trying to win the match, wanting it to be over, but the complaint said “the male’s right forearm pressed against her in the crack between her butt cheeks, while his right hand groped her again forcefully in the pelvic region between her legs and toward the front of her pelvis.”
“He did not penetrate her vagina at that time,” it added.
Miss Keeler “found this second touching deeply offensive and humiliating, especially as he was still wrestling her and pinning her down less than a minute after he had sexually assaulted her — all while she was no longer trying to win the match.”
She said she deliberately allowed herself to be pinned to escape the mat. As she sought out her coach to report the incident, another coach told her that her opponent was a biological male.
“This deepened her feeling of violation and shock,” the motion said. “She felt betrayed that she’d been forced to wrestle a male opponent without her knowledge or consent.”
Miss Keeler reported the incident to her coach immediately and informed school officials the following Monday, but the district didn’t contact the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office until Jan. 30, well past the 48-hour reporting deadline.
The identity of the transgender wrestler was not specified in the lawsuit.
Kate Anderson, director of the Alliance Defending Freedom Center for Parental Rights, said that a “15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted because of political cowardice.”
“Kallie’s mom was in the gym with her daughter, but she could not protect her because the district’s written policy prohibits notifying parents or anyone else when their daughters will be matched against male athletes,” said Ms. Anderson in a Wednesday statement. “She and her mother promptly reported the assault to school officials, who sat on the information for nearly two months.”
She said that “Washington state failed this family, but it isn’t too late to protect other girls. State officials must change their policies and prioritize girls’ safety in sports.”
In her memo refusing to prosecute, Ms. Robnett cited an appellate court’s finding that athletes participate in contests knowing that “potentially offensive conduct” will occur, thus giving their consent.
“We can’t prove Rape 3 at trial,” she said in the June 5 memo. “Even if we could prove penetration beyond a reasonable doubt (which I think is doubtful given the witness statements), we cannot overcome a consent defense. Any harmful and offensive touching/penetration was a direct by-product of the game, and this type of behavior is sufficiently common as to be foreseeable.”
Ms. Robnett emphasized that the student’s transgender status “has no bearing on my charging decision.”
School officials notified the sheriff’s office a day after being contacted by a producer for the Brandi Kruse podcast. The story went viral, prompting the U.S. Department of Education to initiate a Title IX investigation into the school district in February.
Also named in the lawsuit are state Superintendent Chris Reykdal; the Rogers High School principal; and the coach of the Emerald Ridge High School team.
The Washington Times has reached out to the state athletic association and the state superintendent office for comment.
Washington state bans discrimination based on gender identity.
The state superintendent’s office requires schools to adopt its “model transgender student policy and procedure,” which allows students to compete in athletics based on gender identity, the lawsuit said.
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