Girl Begs Supreme Court — Her School’s Excuse Is GUTLESS

Teen girl leaning against a wall with a pensive expression — Photo: Dragana Gordic / Shutterstock

A Washington high school wrestler who says a male opponent assaulted her in a girls’ match has asked the Supreme Court to let her refuse to wrestle boys without being punished.

Story Highlights

Kallie Keeler’s lawyers filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, October 6, after two lower courts turned her down.
The Court ordered Washington officials to respond by Tuesday, October 13, at 4 p.m.
Keeler asks for advance notice of any match against a male athlete and the right to sit it out with no penalty.
Her filing warns that without help, she “will be forced to miss the girls’ wrestling season that begins in November.”

What She Is Asking the Court to Do

Keeler, listed in court papers as K.M.K., is a wrestler in Washington’s Puyallup School District who has wrestled since she was 4. Washington lets students compete on the team that matches their gender identity, so boys who identify as girls can wrestle in girls’ events. Keeler and her mother, Stephanie Brown, want the Court to step in before the season starts in mid-November.

The request went to Justice Elena Kagan, who handles emergency requests from Western states. It asks for an injunction pending appeal, a court order that holds things in place while her appeal moves forward. Keeler wants the state to keep male athletes out of her matches this season, or at least to warn her mother ahead of time and let Keeler sit out with no penalty.

Her lawyers are with Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group. “No girl should have to choose between playing the sport she loves and her safety,” said John Bursch, a senior lawyer with the group.

What She Says Happened on the Mat

Keeler, who was 15 at the time, says a male wrestler from Emerald Ridge High School sexually assaulted her during a girls’ tournament, the Lady Jag Kickoff, on Dec. 6, 2025. She was wrestling for Rogers High School, another school in the same district. According to her lawsuit, no one told Keeler or her mother beforehand that her opponent was male.

Video her mother recorded shows Keeler in distress. Keeler says she finally let herself be pinned to end the match. “The only way she could get it to stop was to allow him to pin her,” said Kate Anderson, one of her lawyers. A coach later told Keeler that her opponent was a boy. She left the team in January.

Pierce County prosecutors declined to charge the opponent. They cited Washington case law that treats athletes as agreeing to the contact expected in their sport, and said they could not prove a criminal case. Separately, two Rogers High School officials, the principal and the athletic coordinator, were charged in July with gross misdemeanors, a mid-level crime in Washington, accused of failing to report the incident to police as the law requires. The family says officials waited 53 days before contacting law enforcement.

Why the Lower Courts Said No

A federal judge denied Keeler’s request for an early order on Aug. 23. The judge found a factual dispute over whether athletes who are biologically male pose a safety risk or an unfair edge in girls’ wrestling. The judge also turned down Brown’s claim that her rights as a parent were violated. On Sept. 25, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to step in while the case is appealed.

Keeler’s filing argues that Washington’s policy violates Title IX, the 1972 federal law that bars schools from treating girls worse than boys in education and sports.

What Washington Officials Say

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which runs high school sports in the state, said it “remains committed to following Washington state law” and would not comment further on a matter in court. The state schools office said it “will continue to uphold Washington’s current law unless or until the law changes.”

The Puyallup School District said it cannot tell Brown in advance when her daughter faces a transgender athlete, because students’ gender identity is kept private. The district said Keeler may sit out such a match, but it will not stop the state sports association from penalizing her for it. The district also has its own Title IX investigation of the incident open, and the U.S. Department of Education is investigating the district.

What Comes Next

The answer from Washington officials is due Tuesday, October 13, at 4 p.m. After that, Justice Kagan can rule on her own or send the request to the full Court. The girls’ wrestling season opens in November, and Keeler has said she is not sure she will return to the mat if she could be paired with a boy again without warning.