The Tumwater School District board of directors defended its position supporting amendments to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association policy that ultimately would keep trans kids from playing with biological girls in sports.
The WIAA amendments would ensure “that all student athletes, regardless of sex, gender identity, or gender expression, who meet eligibility criteria are allowed to participate in the ‘Boys/Open Category,’ and to maintain fair and equitable competition, participation in the ‘Girls Category’ is limited to students whose biological sex is female.”
Another WIAA proposal would create a separate athletic program specifically for transgender athletes.
School board members argued Wednesday the resolution they voted on Feb. 27 wasn’t introduced properly and the presentation given by board president Melissa Beard was biased. Board member Casey Taylor said Beard’s presentation was a clear abuse of power, and Ty Kuehl said his support of the amendments is the real representation of Tumwater, not those who showed up to the board meeting in protest of them.
Beard did not respond to those comments.
The Wednesday meeting began with dozens of people in the crowd protesting the board’s decision to support the WIAA amendments. One person in the crowd shouted, “Hey, do you guys love trans kids?” The question was met with cheering from the audience.
Board member Darby Kaikkonen defended her ‘yes’ vote on the resolution by sharing her experience as a female student athlete. She said the board also didn’t follow Robert’s Rules of Order during its Feb. 27 meeting, which she said resulted in a “biased misrepresentation of the intent of the action item,” which then created a situation where she felt she couldn’t express her point of view and be listened to in an open and fair manner.
Kaikkonen said the situation the board has been caught in is “completely and utterly impossible,” and “a game of tic-tac-toe in which there is no winner.”
“There is no way to take a perspective on the issue of gender equity in sports without appearing to take one side at the expense of another,” she said. “The most unfortunate thing is, this situation, by its nature, pits one historically marginalized group against another.”
She said both women and trans people have historically been marginalized, excluded and discriminated against, ridiculed and abused, harmed and treated as less than human within the law simply by virtue of being trans or a woman.
Kaikkonen shared that she was assaulted at knifepoint by a man in 2011 on the Karen Fraser Woodland Trail.
She said her vote supporting WIAA amendments isn’t about erasing trans people, but about representing the voice of the female competitive athlete. She was one herself in school.
“This is a voice that has every right to be heard along with everyone else, but has not been able to, because of the impossibility of this issue and the great concerns that people like me have about the perception that our voices might appear not inclusive, and bigoted towards the transgender community,” she said.
Board member Ty Kuehl said he wanted to make it clear the district hasn’t outright banned trans students from playing on competitive teams with the gender they identify with. He said the board doesn’t technically have a vote in the WIAA amendment process. What the district does have are administrators and athletic directors who can vote in local leagues that do have the ability to sway decision-making.
Kuehl echoed Kaikkonen’s statements regarding the board president’s presentation of the resolution. He said Beard didn’t properly outline the resolution, leading to unnecessary confusion and misrepresentation.
“First, the presenter did a poor job of clearly explaining the resolution and leaving the public and the media uncertain about what was being proposed,” he said. “Secondly, the presentation itself was biased, as the presenter asserted her own commentary into the issue before a motion; the board was not allowed to engage in discussion before the personal opinion was released.”
Kuehl said he has received a number of inquiries about whether Tumwater’s sports teams will sit out of future games if they have to play against a trans athlete. He said the answer is a resounding ‘no,’ but if individuals want to sit out they can.
Referencing the protest that interrupted the Feb. 27 meeting, Kuehl said he believes the majority of those who disagree with the board’s decision aren’t even from the community. His comment was met with more protests from the audience.
He said he supports folks’ First Amendment rights, but there’s a difference between exercising free speech and crossing the line into disruption, intimidation and threats.
Kuehl said one board member was spat on and another was directly threatened. One of them was followed out to their car. He said the situation escalated to where police had to be called. For the first time in his life, he filed a police report against someone who continually threatened him.
Kuehl said the district is involved in a number of investigations surrounding this situation. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Seattle branch is investigating a Title IX complaint against the district for allegedly opening a bullying investigation into the student who sat out of a basketball game in protest of playing a trans girl.
He said at the same time, Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is opening an investigation alleging discrimination regarding the board’s vote to support WIAA amendments.
Kuehl said the issue is about fairness and safety in sports. He referenced a New York Times poll where allegedly 80% of Americans said they don’t believe biological males should be allowed to compete with biological girls in sports.
Kuehl’s comments were interrupted by protest from the audience. The board briefly adjourned and reconvened after staff cleared the board room of non-staff members.
“Let’s be honest, most of the people that are here causing these disruptions are not even from Tumwater,” he said. “They do not represent our students, our families, our athletes in this district. Their goal is not to have an honest conversation, but to intimidate, disrupt and silence opposition. I am here to represent our actual community, the students, the parents and the taxpayers of Tumwater, and I will not be intimidated.”
Board member Casey Taylor said he’s never been caught between a rock and a hard place with this situation, and it’s clear why the board supports the WIAA amendments. He said the current WIAA policy is unfair to biological girls competing in sports.
He said TSD isn’t the first district to support these WIAA amendments, and it won’t be the last. Taylor said the way Beard presented the policy for the board to vote on is what caused the kerfuffle the district is currently in. He said she violated board protocol, district policy and likely Robert’s Rules of Order.
“Resolutions must be presented neutrally by the chair to ensure fair debate with no indication of personal bias,” he said. “Instead, the presentation was markedly one-sided, framing the resolution in a manner that preempted any open discussion of any meeting.”
He said Beard made biased and non-neutral comments that “incited the audience to become disruptive.”
Taylor said Beard’s actions were a clear abuse of position and power.
“This lapse not only endangered those present, but also eroded public confidence in the board’s ability to safeguard our school community,” he said. “The broader implications here is that these actions contravene the spirit of collaborative governance that defines Washington school boards and the Washington State School Directors Association. These are not mere missteps. They represent a fundamental failure of leadership that calls into question.”
