Washington state education officials say they will not change the policy allowing students to compete according to gender identity, even as a Puyallup-area high school wrestler asks the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene before the season begins.
The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) responded this week after attorneys for Kallie Keeler and her mother, Stephanie Lynne Brown, filed an emergency application asking Justice Elena Kagan for an injunction pending appeal. Keeler alleges she was sexually assaulted by a male opponent during a girls’ wrestling match in December and was not told beforehand that she would be facing a male competitor.
OSPI, which does not administer athletics directly but enforces state law for extracurricular activities, said it has no plans to change course.
“While OSPI does not oversee athletics in our state, our office is responsible for communicating, upholding, and enforcing the law, including in student athletics and extracurricular activities,” the office said in a statement. “OSPI will continue to uphold Washington’s current law unless or until the law changes. OSPI does not have any non-privileged statement, board notice, or guidance that we have issued to schools or staff regarding this appeal.”
The WIAA struck a similar note. “The WIAA remains committed to following Washington State law which permits student-athletes to participate in sports consistent with the gender with which they identify,” the association said. “If state law changes in the future, the WIAA holds the authority to revise policies as necessary to remain in compliance with state law. The WIAA will not comment further on a matter in litigation.”
Background on the policy dispute
The state’s position traces back to last winter. After President Trump signed a February 2025 executive order intended to bar male athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, State Superintendent Chris Reykdal rejected it in a Feb. 6 statement, saying it attempted to force schools to “discriminate against trans female athletes” in order to keep federal funding and sought to “restrict transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports with their peers.” He called the order unlawful and said it conflicted with the Washington Law Against Discrimination, adding, “Our state law prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and we will not back down from that.”
Reykdal later went further, questioning the premise of sex-based categories altogether. “It is quite simply inaccurate to say, biologically, that there are only boys and there are only girls,” he said. “There’s a continuum. There’s a science to this. There are children who are born intersex. There are children whose hormones and whose chromosomes are not consistent with their sex at birth.” He told school districts that students “get to identify and participate based on the gender in which they identify.”
Reykdal also described the policy as affecting a small number of students, saying that of roughly a quarter million young people in Washington interscholastic activities, “roughly five to 10 youth have identified themselves as trans.” He asked, “If we can’t accommodate the needs of five or 10 people, who are we?” He has maintained that a presidential executive order does not override state law, and OSPI has directed districts to remain in compliance with the gender-identity rules.
The underlying case
Keeler, who has wrestled since age 4, left her team in January following a match at the Lady Jag Kickoff tournament and has said she is uncertain whether she will return if she could again be matched against a male opponent without advance notice. According to the filing, the Puyallup School District previously told Brown that forfeiting the match was the only remedy available and that the district would not provide advance notice of an opponent’s sex.
Alliance Defending Freedom filed the emergency Supreme Court application after a federal judge in Tacoma denied a preliminary injunction on Aug. 23, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to grant an injunction pending appeal on Sept. 25. The application argues that the WIAA’s gender-identity policy violates Title IX and Brown’s parental rights, and it cites the Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling in West Virginia v. B.P.J., which held that states may restrict girls’ sports teams to biological females.
Neither OSPI nor the WIAA addressed the specific relief Keeler’s attorneys are seeking: that she be allowed to compete this season without facing a male opponent, or that her mother be given advance notice so she can withdraw her daughter without penalty. The wrestling season in Washington is set to begin in mid-November. The Puyallup School District did not respond to a request for comment.
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