On Friday, Alliance Defending Freedom (AFD) announced an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the case of a female teen wrestler who alleges she was sexually assaulted by a male opponent.
According to AFD, the young girl was unknowingly forced to face a male opponent in girls’ high-school wrestling.
School officials assigned Kallie Keeler, who was then 15 years old, to wrestle a male opponent who she alleges sexually assaulted her during the match.
Keeler perceived that her opponent was stronger and more powerful than others she had faced at the onset of the match, but only learned her assailant was male after the match.
Kallie’s first tournament of the season was a girls-only event sponsored by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) and her district. For her final match of the day, her coaches and a tournament official directed her to the mat against an opponent from another school. Kallie and Stephanie assumed her opponent was a girl. No one told them otherwise.
During the match, the male athlete sexually assaulted her, putting his fingers through Kallie’s spandex to penetrate her private areas.
Watch (Warning: Distrubing Content):
According to AFD, Keeler’s mother, Stephanie Brown, quickly reported the assault. She also provided video evidence showing her daughter’s in-the-moment distressed reaction.
School officials, however, did little in response.
A federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit both declined Keeler’s and her mom’s request to make school officials follow Title IX and protect parental rights.
AFD’s emergency application asks that Washington state officials be required to protect girls’ sports and uphold Title IX’s promise of safety and equal opportunities for women. The request also asks the court to protect parents’ constitutional right to be notified before the school places children in unsafe situations, such as matching females against males in competitive wrestling.
ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellant Advocacy John Bursch notes, “No girl should have to choose between playing the sport she loves and her safety. But the state of Washington forces female athletes like our client Kallie to compete on uneven playing fields against males, violating Title IX’s promise of equal opportunities for girls.”
“Kallie was just 15 years old when a male wrestler sexually assaulted her. Yet state officials continue to diminish the harm to her, pushing their harmful political agenda ahead of fairness and safety for girls.”
The emergency application for an injunction pending appeal filed in K.M.K. v. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association explains that state officials demand that Keeler “continue competing against males or sit out sports entirely. And they refuse to opt [Keeler] out of matches against males without penalty—or even to give Brown notice of such a match so she may opt [Keeler] out herself.”
“Absent an injunction, [Keeler] will be forced to miss the girls’ wrestling season that begins in November, losing the equal opportunity that Title IX guarantees,” the application continues. “And Brown will continue to be deprived of her parental rights. The public interest favors preserving [Keeler]’s and Brown’s rights, and [Washington state officials] can easily return to the sex-based sports system that they long maintained and that state law explicitly allows.”
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