Joel Retzlaff gets yearlong ban after girls’ sports protest

Joel Retzlaff held up a sign¹ at his daughter's cross-country meet, and Camas School District barred him from district properties for a year. His daughter, Sierra Retzlaff, is a sophomore and one of the top runners on the Skyview High School team in Vancouver, Washington. At a Sept. 15 meet at Camas High School, she and teammate Charlie Garrett walked off the course rather than race a biological male from Camas⁴. Her father then said out loud what the girls had written on their arms and legs³: after Sierra’s race, he chanted, “Keep boys out of girls sports!”²

The Retzlaffs came ready to be heard. Joel Retzlaff and his wife brought two signs to the meet, and one read: "It will never be OK for a XY to steal an opportunity from a XX." Camas athletic director Stephen Baranowski approached him and asked him to leave, citing the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association's no-signage rule, and Retzlaff agreed to take the signs down. The chant came later: after Sierra's race, OutKick reports, he held up his sign and chanted² for girls' sports to stay girls' sports. Brandi Kruse reported on Oct. 8 that the Camas School District had served him a criminal no-trespass notice barring him from district property for the next year.

A father objected in public to the race his daughter was made to run, and the district's answer was to put him off its grounds.

The father got the notice. The rule that put a male runner in his daughter's field got nothing. On Sept. 5, a Camas High cross country athlete finished 76th in a JV race, OutKick's Matt Calkins reports. Midseason, the athlete began running as a girl, and on Sept. 29 finished first in a varsity race. In between, the same runner finished second among 195 girls² in a Sept. 26 race in Portland.

None of it broke a rule. OutKick reports that the rules of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association permit such a switch. So if a 76th-place finish becomes a varsity win within weeks², what exactly is the girls' division protecting?

The contrast is the whole story. WIAA's no-signage rule reached a father on the sidelines the day he spoke up, while a runner moving from a boys' JV race to the front of a girls' field met no rule at all. Two girls had to give up their own race, with body paint as their only platform, to make a point the adults in charge would not. When institutions will not say what every parent knows, fathers will. Families who send their daughters to compete are entitled to a girls' division that means girls.

1. Sept. 5Camas runner finished 76th in a JV race
2. Sept. 15Sierra Retzlaff and Charlie Garrett walked off the course in protest
3. Sept. 26Camas runner finished second among 195 girls in Portland
4. Sept. 29Camas runner finished first in a varsity race
5. Nov. 3Washington voters decide Initiative 638

195

Sierra and Charlie did not need a lecture on fairness, because they ran the numbers themselves. Speaking to Clark County Today, Sierra says the Camas runner placed seventh in the girls' race on Sept. 15 and, by time, would have placed about 60th with the boys. Charlie says the runner started the season as a biological male and a week later asked to be entered in girls' races³. Her stated fear is lost spots at districts, regionals and state, and lost scholarships.

"It comes down to biology and the spots being taken away from Sierra, me and all the girls," Garrett told OutKick². She said the protest was meant to show how the policy affected girls in her district, and she said she has no hate toward the other runner. Two 16-year-olds⁵ showed more restraint than the institutions that put them in this position.

Her teammate's father put the question where it belongs. Joel Retzlaff asked: "I would beg to ask them where all the adults are that know the difference between a boy and a girl and why they're letting this happen²." That is the parental-authority fight in a single race: the girls lose places and scholarships, and the parent who objects is told to leave.

The district's case deserves a hearing on its own terms. After leaving the course, Retzlaff drove by the venue honking his horn while a friend held the signs out the window, OutKick reports. Superintendent John Anzalone insists the notice was not an emotional reaction; he was told Retzlaff drove through a "barrier," an area closed off by construction tape, and that the notice was in the interest of safety. Retzlaff called that perspective "valid²."

Take the district at its word, and a taped-off area still does not explain a year. Retzlaff had already agreed to take his signs down when asked, so does a safety concern really require a year-long criminal ban²?

Washington voters do not have to wait for the Camas School District or the WIAA to change course. On Nov. 3, they will decide whether to ban biological boys from competing in K-12 girls' sports through Initiative 638². Clark County Today says the measure would prohibit transgender girls from school athletics intended exclusively for females and require healthcare providers to verify a student's biological sex for eligibility. The two runners know what they want from that vote: Garrett says her protest was meant to raise awareness ahead of the ballot, and Sierra says she would vote yes³.

Two girls gave up a race, and a father was put off district grounds for saying what he saw. Parents in Washington can answer on Nov. 3 by voting on Initiative 638². A family-first state backs the parent who stands up for his daughter, and no father should have to risk a trespass notice to get her a fair race.

Sources

1. @BrandiKruse on X, 2026-10-08: BREAKING: The father of a female cross-country runner has been served a criminal no trespass order by the Camas School District. Joel Retzlaff held up a sign in protest over his daughter having to race against a boy. https://x.com/BrandiKruse/status/210822099, 2026-10-08
2. Dad banned from school grounds after protesting trans runner competing against his daughter | OutKick
3. Skyview girls share the reason for their decision not to compete against biological male
4. @NewsFromCCT on X, 2026-10-08: Skyview runners Charlie Garrett and Sierra Retzlaff walked off the course Sept. 15 rather than race a biological male from Camas. The runner placed 7th in girls but would have been ~60th with the boys. https://clarkcountytoday.com/story/skyview-girls-share-re, 2026-10-08
5. @BrandiKruse on X, 2026-10-08: Sierra and Charlie are breaking their silence. The 16-year-old cross-country runners chose to WALK OFF the starting line rather than race a biological boy from Camas, Washington. pic.twitter.com/NYyhSa5Cvm, 2026-10-08