A transgender school athlete who was filmed knocking down a rival player played five other female sports and was allegedly suspended from a rowing team for leering at a girl’s bare breasts in the changing rooms.
The 6-foot tall student at KIPP Academy in Lynn, Massachusetts, injured three opponents during a girls’ basketball game on February 8. Video from the incident quickly went viral.
Collegiate Charter School of Lowell forfeited the game to avoid losing any more players ahead of the playoffs, and KIPP withdrew from its next game after backlash.
The same transgender student, who is aged 17 or 18, not only competed in girls’ basketball, but in rowing, volleyball, hurdles, shot put and tae kwon do, according to a report from n magazine Quillette.
Before video of the game drew national outrage, the student – sporting a stubbled beard – was featured in a volleyball promotion for an All-Star game on November 9.
The 6-foot tall student at KIPP Academy Lynn in Massachusetts injured three opponents during a girls’ basketball game on February 8, a moment that was shared in a viral video. Before video of the game drew national outrage, the student – sporting a stubbled beard – was featured in a volleyball promotion for an All-Star game on November 9.
Her rowing activities made teammates so uncomfortable she was suspended and kicked off the team, according to a report to the US Senate.
The student competed for a private rowing club in Massachusetts in 2021-22, before an alleged ‘direct case of harassment’ in her team’s changing rooms.
The March 20 report to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee by Republican Senator Bill Cassidy used male pronouns for the student.
‘The male athlete was caught staring openly at one of the female athletes while she changed her clothes in the women’s locker room and remarked, “oooh t*tties!”‘ it read.
‘When a female athlete nearby asked if it was the first time he had seen female breasts, the male responded, “uhh yeah” with a laugh. The male athlete was suspended for this incident.’
The report also claimed she ’caused many issues for the female athletes’ on the team and they avoided using the locker room because of her.
The US Center for SafeSport intervened after the incident and the transgender athlete never rowed for the male or female teams again.
A Massachusetts high school girls basketball team was forced to forfeit their game after a transgender player on the opposing team injured three players
Video shows the transgender player ripping the ball from another players arms, forcing her to fall
Collegiate Charter left the game just after 16 minutes of play, with KIPP leading 31-14. A Collegiate Charter player is seen struggling to move and writhing in pain
A letter to USRowing from 15 parents of the club’s 40 female competitors in further claimed the girls were ‘intimidated’ into silence.
‘Our daughters have stayed quiet because they are afraid. We tried to speak up for them, and we were shut down,’ the letter read.
‘We tried to speak to leadership at all levels. [But] name-calling and the threat of mental health is being used as emotional blackmail to keep us all quiet while women are harmed and devalued.’
Parents said one girl on every trip had to ‘take one for the team’ and share a room with their transgender teammate.
‘The rowing team also required the male athlete to room with them on trips. The girls spoke to us about quitting rowing because of the intimidation of being forced to be in a hotel room alone with a male,’ it read.
The chairwoman of the USRowing medical committee is endocrinologist Kathryn Ackerman, a former US national team rower.
She is also medical director of the Female Athlete Program in the Division of Sports Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital.
The hospital in August 2022 deleted reference on its website to performing vaginoplasty – a male to female sex change operation – on 17-year-olds after it came under fire.
Ackerman in 2022 co-authored a paper in the British Journal of Sports Medicine titled Improving inclusion and well-being of trans and gender nonconforming collegiate student-athletes.
She also presented an online lecture in October on The Care of Transgender Athletes that laid out the advantages male athletes have over female ones.
Ackerman wrote that female athletes had ’30 percent lower max cardiac output’ and 25 to 50 percent lower VO2 max, along with less blood and therefore less oxygen capacity.
Females had ‘about 45 percent less lean body mass. So that would suggest that women are 40 to 60 percent weaker in their upper-body strength, and 25 percent weaker in their lower-body strength.’
The chairwoman of the USRowing medical committee is endocrinologist Kathryn Ackerman, a former US national team rower
The transgender student at KIPP was named a Commonwealth Atlantic Conference All-Star in Volleyball after a season in which she led the charter school team in most major statistics.
She had more ‘kills’ (unreturnable shots) than the rest of the team combined, and the most aces and blocks, according to school statistics.
The team went 13-9 that season, in which she played in 68 sets – equal most on the team. She was featured alongside two other girls in a promotion for the All-Star game on November 9.
The same student also set records in the 400m hurdles and shot put, both as a female competitor, at the Lynn All-City Track Championship on May 30 last year.
Her 41-foot 2-inch shot put was six feet longer than the best throw in the senior event of the Massachusetts state championships that year.
The transgender student was named a Commonwealth Atlantic Conference All-Star after a season in which she led the KIPP team in most major statistics
The same athlete is a longtime Tae Kwon Do student at the Tiger Institute in Saugus, Massachusetts, where she is a black belt.
Photos on the gym’s social media showed she trained there from when she was a young boy, but now competes against women.
She won second place in 16-17 year old Black Belt Sparring at the Cervizzi’s Spring Invitational Tournament in March 2023, then won the Fall tournament in October.
The gym promoted a fundraiser for the transgender athlete to tour Salzburg and Vienna in Austria in June with her opera ensemble.
The ‘tour of a lifetime’ fundraiser, which attracted $2,550 in donations, included a photo of her dressed in a tuxedo while singing.
‘It’s sure to be an amazing and life-changing opportunity that will allow me to experience a new culture, enhance my performing skills and become a cultural ambassador through the sharing of music,’ it read.
‘With the help of my family, friends and other supporters, I know I can make it happen. Please consider supporting my performance and travel dreams with a donation.’
The tour included luxury hotel stays, help arranging performances, a deluxe coach, and sightseeing guides and tickets.
The student was profiled in a Center on Reinventing Public Education report where she opened up on how hard it was to focus on school during attacks on trans rights.
‘Yesterday another state basically made it so that I can never exist in that state. And it’s like, how’s anyone supposed to think about anything at all when there’s all of that going on?’ she said.
‘Even if you’re not directly impacted by it. Most people in my generation know somebody who’s impacted in one way or the other.’
The same athlete is a longtime tae kwon do student at the Tiger Institute in Saugus, Massachusetts, where she is a black belt
She won second place in 16-17 year old Black Belt Sparring at the Cervizzi’s Spring Invitational Tournament in March 2023
The transgender athlete won the fall tournament in sparring last October
The ‘tour of a lifetime’ fundraiser, which attracted $2,550 in donations, included a photo of her dressed in a tuxedo while singing
The student drew national attention, however, earlier this year with viral footage from the playoff basketball game.
Collegiate Charter School officials said the team decided to forfeit the basketball game because the other players feared getting injured and not being able to compete in the playoffs that were a few days later.
‘The bench was already depleted going into the game with the 12-player roster having four players unable to play,’ said Collegiate Charter School spokesperson Casey Crane.
‘When the coach saw three more go down in the first half leaving him with five players, he made the call to end the game early.
‘The upcoming Charter School playoffs were looming, and he needed a healthy and robust bench in four days.’
Collegiate Charter left the game just after 16 minutes of play, with KIPP leading 31-14. However, the final score now, because of the forfeit, was 10-0.
Shocking video from the game shows the taller, bulkier transgender player ripping the ball from another players arms, forcing her to fall.
The Collegiate Charter player is seen struggling to move and writhing in pain.
Collegiate Charter School of Lowell Athletic Director Kyle Pelczar told The Daily Item the coach knew about KIPP’s transgender player ahead of time and she wasn’t the reason they forfeited.
‘No, and Coach (Kevin Ortins) knew going into the game, already, because we had them at home the first game of the year and nothing happened then, so he knew going into the game,’ he said.
KIPP then withdrew from its next game against Lynn Tech after the transgender student received death threats due to the video.
The video went viral and drew criticism from advocates against the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports, including American swimmer Riley Gaines.
Gaines wrote on X, formerly Twitter: ‘A man hitting a woman used to be called domestic abuse. Now it’s called brave.
‘Who watches this & actually thinks this is “compassionate, kind, and inclusive”?’
Gaines made headlines in 2022 after speaking out following her draw for fifth place with trans swimmer Lia Thomas in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship.
KIPP withdrew from its next game against Lynn Tech after the transgender student received death threats due to the video
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association said a player cannot be excluded from a team based on gender identity.
Section 43.3.1 on the handbook said, ‘A student shall not be excluded from participation on a gender-specific sports team that is consistent with the student’s bona fide gender identity.’
The handbook noted a student cannot be listed on a team roster for the purpose of gaining an unfair advantage.
‘It is a recommended best practice that schools communicate with their opponents as necessary about the gender-specific needs of their team in order to promote inclusion,’ said the handbook.