A New Hampshire town has been torn apart over their local school district’s response to two men’s protest over a transgender athlete.
Anthony Foote and Kyle Fellers showed up to a girl’s high school soccer game in Bow on September 17 wearing pink armbands featuring the letters ‘XX’ – a reference to the chromosomes associated with biological females – in a silent protest against a transgender athlete on the opposing team.
Bow School District officials then stopped the game and removed the two fathers, later issuing them no-trespass orders on school property, the New Hampshire Journal reports.
Superintendent Marcy Kelley told them that wearing the arm bands violates school policy against ‘threatening, harassing or intimidating… any person,’ as well as a policy ‘that no person shall “impede, delay, disrupt or otherwise interfere with any school activity.”‘
Some in the town applauded the school district’s response, but others have shown their support for the two fathers, arguing that the school district violated their First Amendment right to freedom of expression.
In fact, at another soccer game in Bow – where there no transgender athletes playing – at least 20 spectators from across the swing state arrived wearing the pink armbands, according to the Concord Monitor.
Supporters also called on the superintendent at a Board of Education meeting on September 30 to rescind the men’s no-trespass order and issue an apology, with some arguing it would help save the town money on legal fees.
‘I’m disappointed in every one of you,’ Bow resident Steve Herbert told the board. ‘You silenced somebody who had a different opinion.
‘There was nothing wrong. There was no voices, there was no mean words. It wasn’t directed at anybody.’
He went on to say that the board member’s actions will be remembered when they seek re-election.
‘I don’t think you deserve to be up there,’ Herbert said. ‘So I hope you enjoyed your time on the board.
‘I am personally going to do everything I can to make sure that we have unbiased people who can read something as simple as the First Amendment,’ he vowed.
Others, though, supported the school district’s decision, saying it was harmful to the transgender soccer player on the Plymouth Regional High School girls’ soccer team.
‘My concern is people are yelling at somebody on the side of a field, that could possibly be very triggering,’ Melynie Klunk said, adding it ‘could be really scary for every single one of those kids, because I got to tell you, I didn’t worry about that growing up.’
Alex Zerba, the parent of a girl’s varsity soccer player, also said she and the other parents don’t want Fellers and Foote ‘supporting our girls the way you are.
‘We are asking you to stop your protesting,’ she said at the board meeting. ‘It is hurting our girls.’
‘This is not the right way to go about doing things,’ Zerba continued. ‘If you have an issue with a transgender [person] on a team, take it up with your legislators.’
Instead, Fellers, Foote and his wife, Nicole, are now suing the school district, accusing it of stifling their constitutional rights.
They are hoping to get a federal judge to stop the school from unconstitutionally using school policies to restrict what they have described as non-disruptive expression of their political or social views, WMUR reports.
‘They would like to wear this wristband to silently but visibly express themselves, but they can’t do it now because they don’t want to risk getting banned from the soccer games’ their attorney, Del Kolde, told the local news channel.
‘And it puts them in a position that is unfair and unconstitutional.’
Foote’s no-trespass order was lifted on September 21, but Fellers’ order remains in effect through the end of the fall sports season.