The five students who protested a boy competing in girls’ sports at a recent track and field competition should receive justice and be allowed to compete.
Five students at Lincoln Middle School in Harrison County, West Virginia, refused to throw the shot put against a male student named “Becky” Pepper-Jackson during an April competition. Pepper-Jackson recently won a federal lawsuit allowing him to compete in female sports despite being male.
The students declined to throw their shot put, forfeiting any potential points their team could win from that event. They were subsequently banned from competing in shot put, leading to a lawsuit from the parents of the students. A judge recently blocked the punishment while litigation continues.
As a former middle school track and field coach, I actually do not have a particular problem with students being punished for giving up during a competition. I think athletes should find other ways to protest that do not harm their team.
However, the students were refusing to participate in a fraudulent competition because, while labeled as the “women’s” event, this was really a mixed event. When boys compete against girls, that makes the event mixed, not female.
Furthermore, the students’ choice not to compete did not actually harm their team, as none of the five athletes stood a chance of beating Pepper-Jackson, who had a 32-foot throw — 3 feet longer than the second-place finisher.
By contrast, Pepper-Jackson would have finished at best in fourth place if competing against his true sex. He could have done even worse since boys throw a nearly 9-pound ball, not the 6 pounds girls throw.
The best among the five shot putters, Emmy Salerno, based on history that season, could throw 24 feet. She would have taken sixth place, not gaining enough points to help her team win. They could have told their coach Dawn Riestenberg to remove them all from the lineup ahead of time, and the result would likely have been the same. There was no harm to the team.
And the biological differences are clear.
“The way that he throws … shows the man’s strength is much greater than girls’,” Salerno’s father told Laura Ingraham recently.
“It’s so hard, so hard to have the courage she’s shown, just to stand up for what she believes in,” Salerno’s mother said on Ingraham’s Fox News show .
“She didn’t even mean disrespect towards this child or the family,” Salerno's mother said. “We wanted to do it in a peaceful, loving way, to stand up for what she believes in, and just be a Christian in doing that.”
Justice would also involve Riestenberg resigning for not joining in the condemnation of the fraudulent event.
The students do deserve praise for calling a boy a boy. After all, these young girls had the courage to do something a federal judge, Pepper-Jackson’s parents, other coaches, and the American Civil Liberties Union did not. For around five years , Pepper-Jackson has been encouraged in his confusion about his gender.
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It is unfortunate he has heard the truth from few people since he was 8 years old. Now a court and school board are affirming him further.
It should not fall solely on the shoulders of junior high girls to tell the truth about biology, but good for them for believing in something , even if it means sacrificing a track competition.
Matt Lamb is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is an associate editor for the College Fix and has previously worked for Students for Life of America and Turning Point USA.
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