School Board Leaders and Parents Urge CIF to Protect Girls’ Sports

Advocates for protecting girls’ sports gathered Thursday outside the Sacramento headquarters of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) before attending the organization’s Executive Committee meeting, where they delivered public comments urging CIF to return to protected sex-based categories for California’s high school sports.

The group included current and former school board members, teachers, and parents of student athletes who addressed the Executive Committee during the meeting’s public comment period. The event was organized by CAUSE: Californians United for Sex-Based Evidence in Policy and Law.

Participants told the Executive Committee that Title IX was enacted to ensure equal opportunities for female students in education and athletics and that policies allowing males to compete in female categories due to a claimed “gender identity” undermine those protections.

“It is not possible to have a sex-based law that denies the very idea of sex,” said Janet Barbieri, a former California school board member and advocate for girls’ athletics. “California’s female athletes are…being systematically erased.”

“What matters is that they are boys. And the way we identify boys is obvious. They have a penis at birth. They have reproductive organs that produce small mobile gametes. That is sperm. That is science. That is the truth. There is no being born in the wrong body” said Jean Pagnone, Board President of Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District.

Other speakers echoed concerns about fairness, safety, and lost opportunities for female athletes.

“As a mother of a female athlete and a former school administrator, I believe protecting girls’ sports means honoring the promise of Title IX- fair competition, safety, and equal opportunity for every female athlete” said school administrator Jodi Buda.

Heidi Moore, mother of three and Elk Grove Unified School District Board Trustee said: “At a board meeting in my district, a mom reported her daughter has been forced to undress in front of three boys. …Let me be clear, this is a civil rights issue…Stop being sexist, protect our girls, and stop erasing women.”

Matt Ward, father and Galt Joint Union Elementary School District Board Member, read from a Federal lawsuit brought by three female students against CIF and the California Department of Education. Jurupa Valley High School athletes Hadeel Hazameh, Madison McPherson and Alyssa McPherson sued after they were forced to be on a team and compete with a male student, identified in the lawsuit as “A.H.”

“Plaintiffs experienced repeated discomfort when A.H. entered and lingered in the girls’ locker room, often remaining inside after changing and making eye contact with female athletes and Plaintiffs while they were changing, which Plaintiffs found invasive and humiliating” quoted Ward to the CIF Executive Board before adding, “Congratulations.”

Participants urged CIF leadership to review its policies and return to sex-based athletic categories consistent with the original intent of Title IX.

About a dozen individuals attended the event in support of girls’ rights to their own sports category. About five additional commenters thanked CIF for their “gender inclusive” policy that permits boys to compete in girls’ sports, but several objected to CIF’s 2025 “pilot program” where male athletes participating in girls’ competitions shared podium spots and official placements with the girls they competed against. Commenters argued it was not fair to these athletes to have to share the top girls’ competition spots with girls.

CAUSE: Californians United for Sex-Based Evidence in Policy and Law is dedicated to working across the political spectrum to bring sex-based reality back to law and policy in California through fact-based legislative positions and raising awareness about the multiple harms caused by gender identity ideology. Find more information about CAUSE here: @CAcause25 on X. CAUSE will be posting videos from the event in the coming days.