Coach sues school district after he got fired for railing against trans athletes

Conservative legal advocacy organization Liberty Justice Center announced earlier today that it’s filing a lawsuit on behalf of a track coach who advocated for the exclusion of transgender girls from girls’ sports in favor of a transgender-only track team, as well as allegedly having harassed a transgender girl who played in girls’ sports.

“I’m a staunch defender of transgender rights. For decades, I’ve been a voice for equitable and inclusive treatment for students with a wide variety of gender and sexual identities, on the track and in the classroom,” said Coach John Parks in a statement.

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“And I’ve seen that these athletic controversies are drawing negative attention to the trans community. Trans athletes have a right to compete, but their bodies have major physical advantages over other students. Oregon’s current policies subject these kids to so much politicization, and that’s a failure by the administration. We have to find a better way to allow all student-athletes to compete. For that to happen, we need these matters discussed, not silenced.”

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The lawsuit, Parks v. Lake Oswego School District, concerns a school district that Parks was terminated in June after allegations that he was staging protests against a transgender girl.

Parks insists that the actual reason for his dismissal is because of his advocacy against transgender inclusion in women’s sports, and he states that all allegations that he conspired to oppose and protest a specific athlete are false.

His attorney alleges that a letter he sent to the Oregon School Activities Association is the cause of his termination. In this letter, he said regarding a potential athletic event that had trans inclusion, “Allowing this travesty to be carried out is making a complete mockery of the meet this weekend and in the future until the rules are altered to protect natural born females.”

However, in a letter he submitted to state Sen. Rob Wagner (D), he admits that he is specifically fighting against transgender rights in athletics. “I have taught social studies for nearly three decades and vigorously fought to teach and support transgender rights in all areas of society except in athletics where they have a superior advantage athletically.”

“This issue is not a political issue! It is a scientific issue! A biological and anatomical issue! It is a major afront [sic] to Title IX’s intent and continued existence.”

In the letter, he also focuses on trans athlete Aayden Gallagher, who was a sophomore in high school at the time. She was booed at a state competition, and Parks alleges that the audience was not booing her as a person, even though she was the recipient of the hate, but instead “were booing the OSAA for allowing this situation to develop.”

Parks, contrary to his claims of supporting transgender individuals, also implies in the letters that trans women are not women. “But by simply declaring their gender identity change, they are destroying the dreams of girls who are forced to compete against athletes that biologically are at a huge advantage,” he wrote.

A witness told Oregon Live that he had said to a trans student-athlete, “It will never be a fair race if you’re in it.” Parks’ attorneys state that he was not presented with evidence such as this in support of his termination.

Parks also admits that this rhetoric made a transgender girl athlete from his own school cry as she internalized the belief that she was “stealing” her victories from deserving cisgender girls.

“Standing atop the awards podium was traumatic for her to the point she was heavily crying as tears ran down her face,” he wrote about his student who won a junior varsity cross country race. If she was running junior varsity, that means that at least seven other girls on her team were considered faster than her since they were on the varsity team and she was not. “She hasn’t had the same desire to compete since because she knew she was stealing a moment from another girl who didn’t have the advantages she had as a boy just four months earlier as a freshman in track.”

The lawsuit argues that his termination is unconstitutional due to violating the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects the right to due process. 

The complaint is filed against the Lake Oswego School District & School Board, and they demand relief in the form of monetary damages as well as a trial by jury.

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