“Our kids deserve to feel safe and secure at school and parents deserve the peace of mind of knowing their children are protected while on campus,” said then-candidate Pritchard prior to voting against Supporting Title IX and Fairness in Girls’ Interscholastic Sports.
Many Americans assume the debate over biological males competing in girls’ sports has largely been settled. It has been one of the most decisive sociopolitical reforms of the modern age. One can be forgiven, given President Donald Trump’s return to office and the administration’s swift crackdown on institutions permitting men to compete in women’s sports, for believing that the issue has faded away.
Yet the controversy remains active across California, and many elected officials continue to support policies that allow biological males to participate in girls’ athletic programs and access female-only spaces.
To that end, it was only a few months after Executive Order 14201 that Capistrano Unified School District’s Board of Trustees had a split vote over a districtwide resolution titled Supporting Title IX and Fairness in Girls’ Interscholastic Sports. The resolution, as one might expect, affirmed protections for female athletes and sought to preserve girls’ sports based on biological sex. The measure was championed by Board President Lisa Davis, Vice President Judy Bullockus, and Trustees Jennifer Adnams and Lisa Zollinger.
Not every trustee agreed. Trustees Gary Pritchard and Krista Castellanos voted against the resolution. Trustee Gila Jones abstained.
The reaction from many district parents to the resolution itself seems to have been largely positive. The same could not be said for the Trustees that voted against it.
“I will never understand why anyone would vote AGAINST preserving all the hard work women have done,” said one social media user.
“Vote those who opposed out!” said another.
Polling data suggests there is widespread and bipartisan consensus in favor of separating athletics on the basis of sex. Nationally, across all demographic groups, 83% support it. Even three-fourths of registered Democrats, the Party typically thought of as being the paragons of inclusion for trans athletes, support keeping women’s sports for biological women.
Nevertheless, the resolution did indeed have its opponents. Among them is Sherine Smith—who ran unsuccessfully for both Lisa Davis’ seat on CUSD’s Board of Trustees and Lisa Sparks’ on the Orange County Board of Education in 2024 and 2022 respectively—who argued the Supporting Title IX resolution was “really divisive.”
Conversely, supporters say the measure was not about exclusion, but about restoring safety.
“I wish as a district we could come up with some type of a solution for these kids that want to play sports,” said Trustee Zollinger. “I would love to have a league for trans kids, or have something that we could do. I want to support and love all these kids, but we have to get back to fairness and safety.”
Perhaps ironically, Trustee Pritchard—who opposed the resolution—stated during election season in 2022 that his “top priority will always be student safety.”
“Our kids deserve to feel safe and secure at school and parents deserve the peace of mind of knowing their children are protected while on campus,” said Pritchard. “Kids first, always.”
And yet, there are countless examples across the nation of young women’s safety and privacy being eroded by granting biological males access to female-only facilities, including a recent incident in New York where a trans-identifying male student was permitted to use the girls’ restrooms and participate in a girls’ only swim unit. It ended with him inappropriately touching a sixth grade girl.
“Everybody’s so scared to disrupt this policy, but we’re all sitting here afraid that one of our daughters is gonna get really hurt or assaulted in there,” said the mother of the sixth grader. “No one’s doing anything about it. They’re just saying their hands are tied. I’m basically being told I just have to deal with you continually putting my daughter in harm’s way.”
As difficult as it may be to face this reality, similar stories continue to happen when school districts put feel-good activism and the perception of inclusion ahead of security.
“We don’t allow children to play contact sports with adults because of the obvious physical risk. Similarly, though some variability exists within the male and female pools, the normal range of physical traits differs so widely between the sexes that allowing men to compete in women’s sports will inevitably expose women to a heightened risk of physical harm,” wrote Chad Carlson in a Wall Street Journal piece published earlier this year.
Since casting the vote, Pritchard and Castellanos have not said much on the matter. Unlike many elected officials, Pritchard in particular maintains a relatively low profile online and rarely engages in public political debates on social media.
Just last month, trans athlete A.B. Hernandez dominated three jumping events at the CIF Southern Section Division 3 preliminaries held at Yorba Linda High School. In the triple jump alone, Hernandez finished nearly three feet ahead of the next runner up (a biological female). This drew immediate scrutiny and public protests.
Wherever one lands on the issue, the reaction at Yorba Linda proves that public concern over girls’ sports has not disappeared.
