A New Hampshire high school called the police on parents wearing pink wristbands featuring two Xs in support of keeping boys out of girls’ sports.
The parents had been advocating for the school to set a policy barring boys from playing as girls, but the school district told them that they could not do anything since a court recently ruled that the term “girl” includes boys who claim to identify as girls in the state’s schools.
The administrators of Bow High School in Bow, New Hampshire, not only told the parents that they could not change any inclusion policies, but they also officially banned the parents from attending any school events for the crime of supporting girls’ sports.
According to the New Hampshire Journal, some parents of the suburb just south of Concord, New Hampshire, were shocked when they received “No Trespassing” letters from school officials informing them that they were banned from school grounds.
“You are hereby prohibited from entering the buildings, grounds, and property of the Bow School District,” the school’s letter told them. “You are also prohibited from attending any Bow School District athletic or extra-curricular [sic] event, on or off school grounds.”
The letter specifically mentions the pink wristbands that the parents were handing out to others at the school soccer game and told the parents that their banishment was because “prior to and during the soccer game [Foote] brought and distributed pink armbands … to protest the participation of a transgender female student on the other team.”
In the letter, Superintendent of Schools Marcy Kelley affirmed that the pink wristbands violate the school’s policy against “threatening, harassing, or intimidating…any person.” Kelley also claims the armbands violate its policy that no person shall impede, delay, disrupt, or otherwise interfere with any school activity.
The letter also points out that school officials called the police on the parents.
Parent Anthony Foote denies any organized protest other than the quiet wearing of the wristbands and that nothing they did was disruptive.
Foote noted that he was concerned over the inclusion of transgender player Parker Tirrell, who plays for the neighboring school of Plymouth High, and he worried that Tirrell could endanger the safety of his female opponents.
“I don’t care what Parker wants to do with his life. What I do care about is that my daughter could be physically hurt, maybe not by Parker because he’s not the biggest kid on the field. But there’s a chance that next time will be different,” Foote told the New Hampshire Journal.
While Foote admits that in light of the court case that has allowed transgender athletes to play in school sports, his act of opposing boys claiming to be girls playing in girls’ sports in the Democrat-heavy town is an uphill battle, however, he feels that his First Amendment rights to speak out have now been violated by the school’s ban on his attendance at his daughter’s sports events.
“Bow is a very blue town, and the people who run things will defend any liberal issue. It’s hard to speak out. But I would say there’s a silent majority. There are firemen, there are police officers, there are teachers from other towns. They don’t agree, but they have to think about their finances. They have to protect their families. They can’t say anything,” Foote told the website.
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