Controversy Over Trans Participation in School Sports Hits My Alma Mater
Oregon high school track coach loses job after expressing outspoken views on transgender student-athletes
The former track and field and cross country coach at my alma mater, Lake Oswego High School (Lake Oswego, Oregon), has filed a lawsuit against the local school district and school board on First Amendment grounds. Parks’ complaint further alleges that the district “conducted an unlawful, retaliatory investigation and subsequent firing, in violation of his 14th Amendment rights to due process.”
The controversy came to light in May, when Parks sent a letter to the Oregon School Activities Association. In his missive, the coach expressed some unabashed and novel opinions about transgender participation in Oregon high school athletics.
In the words of the suit:
In Parks’ view, as he expressed in his letter, OSAA’s current policies on transgender athletes — particularly those that relate to athletes born as biological males who are allowed to compete as females — were flawed and posed a threat to the ongoing existence and integrity of female athletics.
