League cleared forum audience after candidate’s sports shirt dispute

Shannon Kessler, the Republican candidate for California's 30th Assembly District and founder of Save Girls Sports Central Coast, told OutKick she was instructed to cover her "Save Girls Sports" shirt at a Sept. 21 Lucia Mar Unified School District trustee candidate forum in Arroyo Grande^{1, 2}. OutKick reports that organizers cleared the audience after the dispute over Kessler’s shirt.

Girls’ sports and parents

Kessler's shirt was not a stray slogan: New Times reports she caught the public's attention in 2025 for criticizing Lucia Mar's policy on transgender student athletes³. Parents with daughters on Lucia Mar teams should expect every candidate and school leader to say plainly whether girls' sports will stay a sex-based category. The public is not divided on the answer: a Napolitan News/RMG poll from November 2024, cited in American Principles Project's "Defeating They/Them" report, found 75% of voters say biological males should not compete in women's sports⁴.

1. March 2025Save Girls Sports Central Coast was founded
2. May 2025The board voted against placing the proposed resolution on a future agenda
3. Sept. 21The audience was asked to leave the school board candidate forum

5-2

Rules and shirt dispute

OutKick reports that the League's published forum rules prohibit campaign signs, banners, buttons, clothing and literature inside the forum room. The League's website allows campaign materials in a designated outside area and lets organizers refuse entry to attendees in political or disruptive clothing. Kessler acknowledged that the back of her shirt carried her name and Assembly campaign information. She said a woman she described as a League leader told her the front had to be covered because it carried an "anti-trans hateful message." Kessler alleges uneven enforcement, saying a person in a "Trans kids belong" shirt and attendees wearing other candidates' campaign information were not asked to cover up¹. Footage she provided shows the host announcing that the forum could not proceed because of a violation.

The board’s 5-2 vote

OutKick reports that in May 2025 the Lucia Mar board voted 5-2 against placing a proposed resolution supporting Title IX and fairness in girls' sports on a future agenda¹. Superintendent Paul Fawcett said the resolution would have committed the district to advocacy toward state and federal officials and the CIF, rather than immediately changing district policy. New Times reports that parents and community members from Arroyo Grande's Harvest Church had urged the board to align district policies with the Trump administration's Title IX regulations. The majority rejected the idea of agendizing the proposal. Four of the district's seven trustee areas have seats up in November, New Times reports³.

Kessler’s next move

OutKick reports that Kessler, the Republican candidate in California's 30th Assembly District, is running against Democratic Assemblymember Dawn Addis. Her organization's website says Save Girls Sports Central Coast was founded in March 2025, before she launched her Assembly campaign. Kessler told OutKick she will keep pressing school officials on girls' sports, and she said her target is state policy rather than any person¹. The issue now runs through a school board race and an Assembly race on the same ballot.

Sources

1. Woman says public was forced to leave California forum over her 'Save Girls Sports' shirt | OutKick
2. SLO County school board forum interrupted after candidate shows up in campaign shirt
3. Ten candidates compete for four Lucia Mar seats during a charged election cycle
4. Defeating They/Them (American Principles Project, 2024)