Transgender student on Riverside school's cross-country team prompts 'save girls sports' shirts

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- A 16-year-old transgender athlete at a Riverside high school is involved in a lawsuit filed by two of her classmates after a conflict over a spot on the girls varsity cross-country team.

The student, who asked to be identified as ML, attends Martin Luther King High School. She is a member of the school's girls varsity cross-country team.

When ML joined the team - which has seven spots - co-captain Taylor Starling, 16, was bumped down to the JV team. This happened after ML clocked in 52 seconds faster than Starling the first time they competed, causing Starling to miss a varsity cross-country meet.

"I feel like it definitely messed with my chances to be seen by college recruiters," Starling said. "That is a very big meet to be sought out by college recruiters, so it was definitely very disappointing to me that I did get removed from that varsity spot."

"I understand my teammates' disappointment in not getting the spot they hoped for, but I hope they can understand my deep pain and disappointment at how they and their families are handling it," said ML. "It's hateful, it's divisive and it's not how we should treat one another."

ML is referring in part to T-shirts that Taylor Starling and her friend Kaitlin Slavin, who is on the JV team, wore at school in protest. The shirts say, "save girls sports." They're now at the center of that lawsuit filed last week that alleges the school violated Taylor and Kaitlin's free speech.

"When we wore it to practice our athletic director called us over and told us that we had to remove our shirts because they were considered hostile and harmful and then compared our shirts to someone wearing a swastika on their shirts, so it was definitely disappointing to have that be compared to something that's standing up for women's rights in sports," said Starling.

In a statement, the Riverside Unified School District said in part:

"RUSD is bound to follow California law which requires that students be 'permitted to participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil's records'... California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Bylaw 300.D. mirrors the Education Code, stating: 'All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student's records.'"

Julianne Fleischer is the lawyer representing Taylor and Kaitlin.

"We understand that they are bound by state law, but they're also bound by federal law, so they need to follow federal law and that includes not censoring messages that they deem unpopular or messages that they disagree with," said Fleischer. "What the school district is doing is saying one person's rights are more important than Taylor and Kaitlin's rights and that's not OK.

"That's the whole basis of this lawsuit, is to say the school district did something wrong and we want them to correct what they did wrong."

In addition to violating their free speech, the federal lawsuit claims the school violated Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education by not holding ML to the same standard as the rest of her teammates who were required to attend practice regularly.

ML's mother says her daughter is taking additional classes so she can graduate early and has been practicing and communicating with the coach.

"I intend to take this immense pressure that I feel and use it for awareness and change. Maybe trans kids are here to transform old norms into acceptance, to transform discrimination into participation and to transform hate into love," said ML.

"I have never been more proud of my daughter than I am today. I have watched her navigate her way through hateful chaos with grit and grace," said ML's mom.

After Taylor's high school was made aware of the Title IX complaint, she was moved back up to the varsity cross-country team, only missing that one meet. ML remains on the team as well.