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The parents of a West Virginia middle school girl say they were “horrified” when their daughter told them a trans-identifying boy was sexually harassing her at school, and were “hurt and shocked” by the school’s lackluster response.
Abigail and Holden Cross are the parents of 15-year-old Adaleia, who played track and field alongside a trans-identifying boy when the two were classmates at Bridgeport Middle School. It was in eighth grade when the trans-identifying boy began regularly sexually harassing Adaleia both in the locker rooms and on the field, her parents said.
“When she told us these things we were horrified and immediately reported it to coaches and the school,” Adaleia’s mother Abigail told The Daily Wire. “The school told our daughter that they were going to investigate and not to say anything, and then we never heard back from them again. Nothing changed for our daughter and she didn’t get any help.”
Adaleia described dealing with the boy’s sexual harassment in a statement she submitted as part of a lawsuit by several states against the Biden administration’s new Title IX rules, which prohibit schools from enforcing blanket bans on trans-identifying males in girls’ sports.
At first, she tried her best to ignore the boy’s inappropriate sexual comments, but they became “much more aggressive, vile, and disturbing,” Adaleia said in her statement. Sometimes the boy’s comments were “just annoying,” like saying she had a “nice butt,” she said.
However, towards the end of eighth grade the boy, who claimed to be a girl, was telling her to “suck my d***” two to three times a week. He also told her, “I’m gonna stick my d*** into your pu***,” sometimes adding “and in your a**” as well.”
“These comments were disturbing and caused me deep distress,” Adaleia said in her statement.
She tried to change in the bathroom stall whenever she could to avoid changing in front of her biologically male classmate, but time was often short before practice, she said. She also said the trans-identifying boy would taunt her about his sexuality — she recalled the boy telling her, “You have more testosterone than I do, and I am still beating you.”
Her parents say they had to get a lawyer involved to even get a response from the school about her complaints, and the school sent them a letter saying it had found no evidence of their claims.
“So really nothing has been done at this point,” Adaleia’s father Holden said. “We would really like to just make it to where girls have a safe space to compete, change in their locker rooms, when they’re most vulnerable.”
“We were just so hurt and shocked and just taken aback by their response that we just have been doing everything since then to try to take action and to tell the truth about what’s going on so this won’t happen to our daughter again or hopefully any other girls,” Abigail Cross said.
In her statement, Adaleia said she does not want her younger sister who is “very shy” to go through what she went through.
“Emotionally, it got our daughter down towards the end of last year,” her father said. “It’s been a lot for us. It’s been a lot for our daughter. It’s been a lot for our other two kids who have to lose time with us for various different reasons.”
Next year the trans-identifying boy is set to enter high school where Adaleia is now, and they may compete alongside each other again. Both play the trumpet in the marching band as well. This prospect is “weighing on her heavily,” her parents said.
A year ago, Adaleia competed against the boy in several track and field events at the Harrison County Middle School Championships.
Last month, five middle school girls from a different school refused to compete against the same trans-identifying boy at this year’s championship event. One by one, the five girls stepped into the starting area and then stepped out, video of the competition shows.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing Adaleia’s family in the lawsuit from West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana against the Biden administration.
“The Biden administration’s radical attempt to redefine sex in Title IX to include gender identity is really gutting equal opportunities for women,” ADF legal counsel Rachel Rouleau told The Daily Wire. “This will take out women’s privacy and safety like we’re seeing in this case with Adaleia.”
The case has a hearing scheduled for June 10 where the judge will weigh whether the Title IX changes will go into effect on August 1 or be blocked pending the lawsuit against them.
“We’re very hopeful that these rules will not go into effect, and women and girls can be protected,” Rouleau said.
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