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California school board meeting descends into emotional clash amid trans volleyball player controversy
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A school board meeting in California descended into explosive debate after a girls’ volleyball team forfeited to an opponent with a transgender player.
The players on the Riverside Poly High School girls’ volleyball team chose to forfeit last Friday’s game against Jurupa Valley High School. Multiple parents previously told Fox News Digital the forfeit was in response to the presence of trans athlete AB Hernandez on the Jurupa Valley team.
Local parents showed up to the Riverside Unified School District board meeting on Thursday to speak out in support of the girls who forfeited and against the school district for its current gender policies, while others spoke in support of trans athletes in girls’ sports.
Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda Hernandez, showed up to defend AB’s right to play in girls’ sports, and condemned board member Amanda Vickers for previously interviewing with Fox News Digital about the forfeit last week.
“Amanda Vickers, you interviewed with Fox. You actually entertained and welcomed harassment to my child. You are a board member. You have an oath to protect, to support all children, not just the ones that fit your ideas, your beliefs,” Hernandez said.
“When you allow or tolerate targeted harassment, whether online, in person or allowing false narratives to be spread at board meetings, you are only failing morally.
“My daughter is not the problem. The problem is coordinated external efforts often led by individuals that travel from district to district… to spread fear and put parents against each other using religion as a shield for discrimination. This has nothing to do with fairness in sports and everything to do with erasing transgender children.”
One mother, Maria Correo, spoke in support of the Riverside Poly players and condemned parents enabling male children to play in girls’ sports.
“The girls, great job. Poly girls, we stand with you. Keep fighting, because these parents that support their confused child are the problem,” Correo said. “If my child was on drugs, I would love him, but guess what? I would tell him the truth; drugs are bad for you. I would not feed him more drugs.”
Riverside became a hotbed of controversy involving trans athletes in girls’ sports last year during Hernandez’s highly-publicized season and after a lawsuit was filed by two girls at Martin Luther King High School that alleged a trans athlete took one of the girls’ varsity spots on the cross-country team.
TRANS VOLLEYBALL PLAYER INCIDENT UNLEASHES PARADE OF ANGRY PARENTS ON ILLINOIS SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
The students at the school then began wearing the “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts every week in response after school administrators allegedly compared the shirts to swastikas, according to the lawsuit.
One mother, who only identified herself as Sandy R., urged the board members to adopt their own resolution to ban trans athletes from girls’ sports, breaking from state law. One school board in California has already done this – the Kern County Board of Education, earlier in August. Sandy R. referenced the lawsuit that had been filed by the two students.
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“I will be so proud and so honored that an RUSD family will be the ones that take down an unlawful and unconstitutional California law,” she said.
President Donald Trump warned California and Gov. Gavin Newsom about the state’s transgender policies in a post on Truth Social on Thursday.
“Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote in the post.
Riverside Unified School District board meetings featured several tense moments that went viral last fall amid the controversy at Martin Luther King High School.
Meanwhile, AB Hernandez was the focus of a national media firestorm in May during the athlete’s run to a California girls’ track and field championship. The postseason meets that Hernandez competed in were met with protests by female athletes and their families, who often wore the “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts.
In July, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Education (CDE) and CIF for its policies that have allowed biological males to compete in girls’ sports across the state despite Trump signing an executive order in February to prohibit it.
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A bipartisan survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found a majority of California residents oppose biological male trans athletes competing in women’s sports.
That figure included more than 70% of the state’s school parents.
“Most Californians support requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching the sex they were assigned at birth,” the poll stated.
“Solid majorities of adults (65%) and likely voters (64%) support requiring that transgender athletes compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with. An overwhelming majority of public school parents (71%) support such a requirement.”
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Kiffin wanted to stay at Mississippi through the College Football Playoff even after taking the job at LSU. That only made sense on television.
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Legendary England batter Geoffrey Boycott on Monday advised the Ben Stokes-led side to adopt a more strategic and thoughtful approach ahead of the second Ashes Test against Australia, scheduled for Thursday in Brisbane.
England suffered an agonising eight-wicket defeat in the series opener in Perth, which lasted less than two days, the first of which was dominated by the touring side as they had reduced the hosts to 123/9 after accumulating 172 all out.
The visitors now face another gruelling challenge in the blockbuster series as they take on the Baggy Greens in a pink-ball Test, in which the hosts boast a dominant record, having lost just one out of their previous 14 appearances, but Boycott, who has won Ashes both in England and Australia, believes that the Three Lions can win the upcoming game by adopting a calculated strategy.
He, however, warned England batters of self-destruction, advising them to “use their brains” and decide whether to attack or hold back after analysing the situation.
“But it doesn’t help our chances of success if Ben Stokes keeps encouraging our batsmen to attack, attack with one finger hovering over the self-destruct button,” Boycott wrote in his Daily Telegraph column.
“Nobody is asking the players to stop being positive because they have given us some marvellous, thrilling and entertaining cricket. All we ask is for them to use their brains and realise there are times when they should throttle back and be aware of situations and bat accordingly,” he added.
Boycott, who represented England in 108 Tests and 36 ODIs, also slammed Stokes for his comments in which he referred to former cricketers as “has-beens” but expressed satisfaction over the all-rounder’s partial apology.
“To call past players ‘has-beens’ was disrespectful, especially as some of those ‘has-beens’ played in teams that won the Ashes in England and Australia,” Boycott wrote.
“I am glad Ben has half apologised, saying it was a slip of the tongue, because none of this team has won the Ashes in Australia. Get the job done, because then you don’t need to say anything and you can bask in all the glory coming your way.”
The Copa Libertadores trophy won by Flamengo on Saturday was damaged during the team’s title celebrations.
Flamengo beat Palmeiras 1-0 in the final in Lima, Peru, to become the first Brazilian club to lift the prestigious cup four times.
Flamengo players and staff had a victory parade on the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Sunday afternoon, with an estimated 500,000 people joining in the celebrations.
Players and staff took turns to lift the cup during the parade and images showed that the top part of the trophy, which consists of a figurine of a footballer ready to kick a ball, was wrapped in what appeared to be masking tape.
– Flamengo lift Copa Libertadores, but Brazil’s players look exhausted
The figurine had earlier been broken.
Flamengo will be hoping to wrap up the Brazilian league title on Wednesday when they take on Ceara in front of their own fans in Rio’s Maracana stadium.
They are five points clear of Palmeiras at the top of the standings with two games remaining.
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