Schools must tell parents before putting men in girls’ sports

Schools owe parents the truth before a male athlete steps onto a girls’ court or into a girls’ locker room. Briley Lechner’s federal lawsuit against Monroe Public Schools is the right answer to officials who, the suit alleges, kept that truth from Monroe’s girls and their families¹.

Riley Gaines endorsed a federal lawsuit that puts those protections at the center of a fight in Monroe, Michigan. On Oct. 12, Gaines wrote, “Another lawsuit from a female athlete refusing to compete with a man in her sport has been filed in Michigan,” then added, “This is the way.² #SaveWomensSports.”

Thomas More Law Center describes itself as a “national nonprofit public interest law firm, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan”³ and says it filed the suit on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, for “16-year-old tenth grader Briley Lechner and her father, Sean Lechner”. The defendants are Monroe Public Schools, the Michigan High School Athletic Association, the district superintendent and its athletic director¹.

The complaint alleges Chet Hesson and school coaching personnel “knew about the opposing player’s biological sex a day before the competition” and “did not disclose that fact to Monroe’s female athletes or their parents.” It also alleges “the biological male was permitted to use intimate locker room facilities designated for Monroe’s female athletes.” Briley Lechner said, “My goal is to preserve opportunities and safety for female athletes, ensuring that sports remain a space where girls can compete fairly, achieve their potential, and feel safe.” The complaint says witness identities and statements were withheld; board members discussed the appeal in closed session and adjourned “without publicly deciding the merits of the appeal.”

The complaint alleges Monroe officials knew about the opposing player before the match and kept that information from the girls and their parents.

The lawsuit alleges that school officials knowingly concealed from Monroe High’s girls’ volleyball team and their parents that the Sept. 9, 2025, match with Ann Arbor’s Skyline High would involve a biological male¹.

The silence reached past the court. The complaint also alleges the player was permitted to use those facilities without the Monroe athletes being informed¹.

Parents cannot protect daughters from a decision no one tells them about.

1. Sept. 9, 2025The complaint says Monroe’s team faced Ann Arbor Skyline.
2. Oct. 9The Thomas More Law Center says it filed the Lechners’ lawsuit.
3. Oct. 12Riley Gaines endorsed the lawsuit.

Briley says girls should be able to compete fairly and feel safe; her father says they should not have to stand alone while responsible adults stay silent.

Girls’ sports exist to give female athletes a fair shot, and a girls’ locker room exists so they can change in private.

Her father put the duty on the grown-ups: “Our daughters should never have to stand alone while the adults entrusted to protect them stay silent,” he said, adding, “As a father, I will not remain silent.”¹

He has paid for speaking. After Sean and Briley Lechner announced their Title IX complaint publicly, they received death threats, racist insults and a threat to blow up their home, according to the lawsuit as reported by the Detroit News⁴.

The family’s complaint says the district called its allegations “unsubstantiated” while withholding investigation materials and leaving the appeal without a pub

The district’s answer to the family was a single word. The law center says Superintendent Shaw and the Monroe district board characterized the family’s allegations as “unsubstantiated.”¹ The Detroit News reports that Shaw allegedly bypassed the district’s Title IX coordinators and retained an outside law firm, whose investigating attorney reached that finding⁴.

The complaint alleges investigators withheld witness identities and statements, leaving the family unable to meaningfully challenge that determination. On appeal, it says, the board discussed the matter in closed session and adjourned without publicly deciding its merits; the district then claimed the superintendent’s finding was affirmed because no one voted on it¹.

Monroe Public Schools and Shaw did not respond to the Detroit News’ requests for comment, and Hesson declined to comment⁴. If the finding was sound, why did it need hidden witnesses, a closed door and a vote nobody took?

Parents should demand that schools protect girls’ competition and privacy and tell families when those protections are at stake.

The Lechners’ lawsuit challenges Monroe’s girls’ athletics program under Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause¹. It reaches the statewide rules, too. The Detroit News reports that the suit alleges MHSAA gives its executive director “unfettered discretion” to approve transgender girls’ eligibility based on documentation the athlete submits⁴.

Richard Thompson, the law center’s president, said the case is about whether officials can “knowingly sacrifice the rights of female athletes to accommodate a biological male athlete, conceal that decision from the girls and their parents, and then evade accountability.”¹ Monroe’s girls deserved the opposite on all three counts.

Parents should demand that Monroe Public Schools and MHSAA protect girls’ sports and sex-separated facilities, give families notice, and enforce rules that put daughters first. The Lechners have already carried that demand into federal court. Every Monroe family with a daughter on a team should stand with them and press the district board to answer in public what it refused to decide in public¹.

Sources

1. 16-Year-Old Female Athlete Files Federal Lawsuit Under Title IX and U.S. Constitution to Defend Her Rights to Play on Girls Sports Teams Without Being Forced to Compete with Biological Males - Christian Newswire
2. @Riley_Gaines_ on X, 2026-10-12: Another lawsuit from a female athlete refusing to compete with a man in her sport has been filed in Michigan 👏🏼 This is the way. #SaveWomensSports https://standardnewswire.com/16-year-old-female-athlete-files-federal-lawsuit-under-title-ix-and-u-s-constit, 2026-10-12
3. Thomas More Law Center | The Sword and Shield for People of Faith
4. Monroe athlete sues district over Title IX ruling on trans athlete