A Michigan father has filed a Title IX complaint against his daughter’s school for failing to comply with safety protocols by allowing a boy to compete against his daughter’s volleyball team.
Sean Lechner’s daughter Briley attends Monroe High School in the Monroe Public School District. In September, Monroe competed against Skyline High School’s women’s volleyball team, which has a transgender-identifying male on its roster, according to Lechner’s complaint, which was filed Friday and publicized Tuesday at a press conference.
“My daughter was forced to share a locker room, where females undressed, with the male athlete,” he said in the complaint. “The presence of a male in the girls’ locker room was not disclosed prior to the match, constituting a violation of privacy and bodily integrity protections under Title IX.”
Monroe parents were not aware that their daughters would be competing against a male, or that the trans male would be changing with them in the girls’ locker room, Lechner said in his complaint. Lechner accused the schools of failing to “ensure fair competition, provide a safe environment and equal opportunity to participate in sex-separated athletic programs.”
“They failed to protect our daughters, they failed to uphold federal law, and they failed to share what truly occurred before, during and after,” Lechner said.
Ann Arbor Public Schools, the district that oversees Skyline, did not notify the opposing team or parents about the presence of a male athlete on the team, Lechner said. Monroe High School, he continued, knowingly forced female athletes to share locker rooms with the male, and dismissed parental concerns over violations of student privacy and fair competition.
Briley said at the press conference that her team was “caught off guard.”
“We found out… weeks after that there was [a] male in the same locker room as us as we were changing and also playing against us. It caught everyone off guard… because nobody would have expected that,” the 16-year-old said. “As I was looking at this person, admiring how amazing they were, admiring how high they could jump, I was kinda getting down on myself [wondering] why I’m not capable of that.”
MPS has launched a third-party investigation into the complaint.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association confirmed to media that it received one waiver from a transgender-identifying student who wanted to play sports this fall. The MHSSA grants waivers after looking at students’ medical records, spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly said.
“We look at every athlete individually,” Kimmerly said. “We’re talking about one individual student, so they’re all going to be different a little bit in some way and so they’re all going to be unique.”
Although Michigan law seemingly allows men to play on women’s sports teams, President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year banning men from competing in women’s sports. MHSAA is requesting advice from state lawmakers on how to proceed with conflicting guidance, Kimmerly said.