Michigan parent files Title IX suit over transgender athlete from Ann Arbor high school

Monroe County parent files Title IX suit over transgender athlete from Ann Arbor

Parents, politicians, and others spoke in Monroe County on Monday amid concerns from one parent about a trans athlete competing in girls' volleyball game. The parent has since filed a Title IX complaint.

(FOX 2) - A parent of a student that attends Monroe High School has filed a complaint with federal, state, and local school officials about another school's decision to allow a transgender student to compete on a girl's volleyball team.

Sean Lechner, whose daughter attends the school, submitted the Title IX complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, the Michigan Department of Education, the state's high school athletic association, and Monroe Public Schools.

The complaint names Ann Arbor Skyline as the high school that allowed a transgender student to play on their girl's volleyball team during the regular season.

Teams from both schools used the same locker room during the match, which spurred accusations of student privacy being violated.

The latest:

Parents, politicians, and others held a press conference in front of the Monroe County courthouse to voice their concerns, announcing the complaint more than two weeks after Michigan Republican lawmakers called on the Michigan High School Athletic Association to clarify the issue.

The letter asked MHSAA to verify whether the proper documentation to confirm eligibility for a transgender athlete was submitted.

The specific incident revolves around a volleyball match between schools in Monroe and Ann Arbor when Skyline's varsity team competed against Monroe High School.

"This was definitely devastating for all of us girls," said Briley Lechner. "This person did disguise themselves to look like a female so when we found out weeks after that there was another male in the same locker room as us as we were changing and also playing against us, it caught everyone off guard."

Briley's father, Sean, who filed the Title IX suit, said any faculty or parents that allows students of a different sex in the same locker room should be "held accountable."

The backstory:

Michigan's high school athletic association does not prohibit girls from competing on boys' teams. It does require schools to obtain a waiver for a transgender female to compete on a girls' team in the playoffs.

Neither MHSAA nor Ann Arbor has commented on the student in question, and have maintained that they do not share information about their students.

However, the story has continued to grow since a reporter with the conservative-leaning sports website said he had been investigating a story about a transgender athlete at a high school in Michigan.

Dan Zaksheske writes for OutKick, which is owned by Fox Corporation, the parent company to FOX 2, and told the station he had been harassed by faculty at the school while he was reporting the story.

The headlines spurred a letter from Republicans in the Michigan Legislature that alleged there had been a disregard for student privacy and competitiveness, as well as a failure to comply with Title IX.