After witnessing their teammates sustain injuries and rough plays by a towering bearded transgender player from the other team, a Massachusetts girls’ high school basketball team chose to forfeit out of fear for their safety.
Elenore Casey Crane, spokeswoman for the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell, told The Epoch Times that the girls decided to call it quits after two of their teammates were knocked out of the game by a KIPP Academy Collegiate School of Lynn student. While Ms. Crane said she could not confirm the ages of the players, The Epoch Times has been told by sources that the age of the KIPP Academy student is 17 and that one of the injured girls is 13.
“After speaking with players, parents, and coaches, we were made aware that most of the players did not want to continue the game after witnessing the third player injured and the roughness of that particular play,” said Ms. Crane—explaining that earlier in the game, a teammate left the game from an injury unrelated to the KIPP Academy player.
Ms. Crane, who is a former New Hampshire state representative, was responding to nationwide criticism of her initial statement she released earlier in the week on the incident, she didn’t specify that the reason the team forfeited was due to concerns from injuries and roughness from the transgender player.
KIPP Academy did not respond right away to inquiries from The Epoch Times about the incident. On its website, the Lynn charter school emphasizes its commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, which is highlighted by a page entitled “Together For Equity and Justice.”
Ms. Barnes also said she supports state laws that provide students with the right to participate in school sports based on “their gender identity or expression.”
Ms. Crane emphasized that the Lowell charter school follows state laws that protect the rights of all students “including mass laws regarding our transgender students,” she said, but that student safety is equally a priority.
“We will always stand up for the safety of our players and our primary concern is the safety of our players and supporting them,” she said. Ms. Crane added that she believes all schools need more guidance on the “safety piece” of inclusion laws.
In addition to Title IX—the federal law that protects students from being discriminated against on the basis of race, religion, and gender, and now under the Biden administration “gender identity”—Massachusetts has a constitutional amendment that specifically prohibits the exclusion of boys from girls athletic teams.
It also prohibits schools from asking for any proof that would validate a male student’s claim they are transgender.
The incident, which has gone viral on social media along with a short video clip of one of the girls being injured by the KIPP Academy player, has drawn outrage from several high-profile sports figures.
The former University of Kentucky NCAA freestyle champion became a national advocate against males in female sports after she lost her title to Lia Thomas, a biological male who competed on the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team.
In an appearance on NewsNation’s On Balance over the Massachusetts injuries, retired University of North Carolina Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell, who boasts the fifth most wins in NCAA women’s basketball, said that it’s disturbing that anyone would think it’s okay to force females to play against a player with the physical wingspan of a male.
“I don’t care if you had an operation or took hormones or what,” she said. “Having to play against a transgender is not fair and it’s not equal.”
Ms. Hatchell also believes as more injuries happen that expose the safety risks of males competing in contact sports against girls, the issue will ultimately end up in the Supreme Court as a challenge to the legal interpretation of Title IX.
In November, in another Massachusetts case, a field hockey player for Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School had her teeth knocked out and suffered facial injuries when a Swampscott High School male player who identifies as a female drilled the ball directly at her face during a playoff game.
Some predict it may even turn lethal while others called it out as a form of misogyny and even deliberate violence against women.
High School sports teams with transgender players are also posting record winnings and eclipsing historic efforts, discouraging girls from competing in sports.
Currently, a Vermont high school girls’ basketball team with a 6-foot-1-inch player, a transgender senior at Long Trail School in Dorset, is 17–1 this season.
Ms. Crane said until the matter is addressed it remains “a no win situation for everyone.”
Ms. Hatchell said it is also time to question why males are even competing in women’s sports.
Under the rules of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), which governs school sports in the Bay State, while a student cannot be excluded from participating in gender-specific sports, no students are to be “included on the roster solely for the purpose of gaining an unfair advantage in competitive athletics.”
