By Steven Allen Adams, The Intelligencer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State and local education officials and West Virginia’s regulator of sports at middle and high schools continue to deflect responsibility for a new law prohibiting transgender female student-athletes from playing in girls’ and women’s sports, according to court documents.
The Harrison County Board of Education, the state Board of Education and the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission filed responses Friday to their earlier motions to dismiss a complaint brought in May by Becky Pepper-Jackson, an 11-year-old transgender student at Bridgeport Middle School who wished to join her middle school’s girls’ cross-country team.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin granted Pepper-Jackson a preliminary injunction in July preventing enforcement of House Bill 3293, relating to single-sex participation in interscholastic athletic events. Pepper-Jackson is represented by Lambda Legal, the state and national chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union, and law firm Cooley LLP.
HB 3293, passed during the 2021 legislative session, requires student-athletes in middle school, high school or college to participate in sports that match their biological sex based on the student’s sex at the time of their birth. The bill applies to sports regulated by the NCAA and other college interscholastic organizations, and requires the state Board of Education, the WVSSAC, and state college regulators to create rules for the implementation of the law…
