Latest news with #CaliforniaInterscholasticFederation
Sky News AU
10-06-2025
- Sport
- Sky News AU
Trans athlete AB Hernandez says it's ‘weird' people protested high school track events: ‘I did what I wanted to do'
California transgender athlete AB Hernandez believes it's 'weird' that people were so outraged by her competing against biological females that they protested multiple high school track events. The teen, who was born a biological male, is on the track and field team at Jurupa Valley High School in Southern California, which dominated the California high school track-and-field championship on May 31. The high school junior faced scrutiny at events over the last few months, with many actively protesting at meets and online since Hernandez was participating against biological females. 'It's definitely crazy, I get a lot of hate comments, but I'm like, 'I don't care,'' Hernandez told KCRA. '[I'm a] 16-year-old girl with a mad attitude. You think I'm going to care?' The student-athlete also found people who were continually protesting the high school events to be a bizarre sight. 'It's just weird at this point,' Hernandez said. While dozens of demonstrators were outside the stadium gates to protest, Hernandez said people were more supportive inside. 'I wasn't expecting any of it, to be honest. I was just expecting to go out there and compete alone, but the support was amazing,' she said. 'They really made my experience perfect. I will forever be grateful for them because they helped me get through the weekend.' Hernandez tied in the varsity high jump final against two biological females, Jillene Wetteland and Lelanie Laruelle, and shared the podium with them due to a newly passed California policy. The student-athlete also took home gold for the triple jump, finishing with a final jump of 42 feet 2 inches, and had to share the podium with Kira Grant Hatcher, who jumped 40 feet 5 inches. 'I did what I wanted to do,' Hernandez said. 'My performance was all I wanted to be good. So all this backlash … I performed my best, so that's all I cared about.' The California Interscholastic Federation changed its rules before the event to mandate that any biological females who lost to a trans athlete would not lose their place, meaning Hernandez's performance would displace no female winners. The new rule also allowed an additional biological female student-athlete to compete in each category in which Hernandez was set to perform. The change came in the wake of criticism over the federation's handling of Hernandez's success, including from President Trump, who threatened to withhold funding from the Golden State. 'California, under the leadership of Radical Left Democrat Gavin Newscum [sic], continues to ILLEGALLY allow 'MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN'S SPORTS,'' Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump previously warned that federal funding would be 'held back, maybe permanently' if the Golden State didn't adhere to his February executive order to safeguard women's sports. The president also said at the time that he would order 'local authorities, if necessary, to not allow' a transgender athlete to compete in the women's track and field contest, though he did not mention Hernandez by name. The Trump administration previously launched an inquiry into Maine to determine whether it was breaking Title IX rules by allowing transgender athletes to compete, putting at least $250 million in annual federal funding for the state in the crosshairs. However, the White House later agreed to unfreeze funding for Maine amid litigation and negotiations. Last month, the Justice Department announced plans to investigate whether California's School Success and Opportunity Act, which allows transgender students to compete in women's sports, violates Title IX. Originally published as Trans athlete AB Hernandez says it's 'weird' people protested high school track events: 'I did what I wanted to do'
10-06-2025
- Sport
Family threatens legal action after track star is disqualified over celebration paying homage to Olympian
The family of a 16-year-old track star is threatening to take legal action after the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) disqualified their daughter and stripped her of her gold medal after she celebrated her win in the state final by spraying her feet with a fire extinguisher – an homage to Olympic champion Maurice Green. Clara Adams, a North Salinas High School sophomore, said that CIF officials told her that she was disqualified for "unsportsmanlike" behavior after the 400-meter state final and was prevented from standing on the podium to claim her number one spot or competing in the final race. ABC News reached out to CIF representatives but requests for comment were not returned. Adante Pointer, an attorney representing Clara Adams, told ABC News that the family is "certainly" planning on taking legal action if the CIF doesn't reverse its decision. "That was the championship, she would have been the fastest sprinter in the state of California – she is, she won, but she doesn't have the title nor the medal," Pointer said. "She'll never have that moment." According to the CIF code of conduct on sportsmanship, student athletes are in part, not permitted to engage in or allow "taunting, boastful celebrations, or other actions that demean individuals or the sport." The Monterey County Board of Supervisors wrote a letter in support of Adams that the county is set to vote on Tuesday afternoon, urging CIF officials to reinstate her immediately. "Clara's celebration did not take place on the track itself, not was it directed at any of the competitors, the letter says, calling the punishment "disproportionate." Adams spoke out about the incident alongside members of the NAACP and her father, David, who is also her coach, during a press conference on Friday, saying that she was "crushed" by the CIF's decision. "I had to watch the girls get on the podium without me," she said. "I had to watch somebody else get on the number one spot that I was supposed to stand on. And that wasn't cool at all. That was wrong." Adams said that her father handed her the fire extinguisher after her win and instructed her to get off the field before spraying her feet in a nod to Greene, an iconic Olympian sprinter, who famously celebrated his 2004 Olympics win in the 100 meter race by taking off his shoes and having a teammate spray them with a fire extinguisher to put out the figurative fire on his feet. Pointer said that Adams was "surprised" that she was punished because she was "paying homage to one of her icons." Greene, who spoke with ABC affiliate in Salinas, KSBW-TV, said he was happy to see Adams pay homage to him and suggested that she should be reinstated. "When I heard, cause it happened, and then people just started calling me 'This girl who just ran the 400 did your celebration' I was like huh? What?" Greene said. "If it was away from everyone and not interfering with anyone, I would say reinstate her."
San Francisco Chronicle
10-06-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
California sues to prevent Trump from cutting funding over transgender athletes
The Trump administration's effort to cut off billions of dollars in funding to California schools for allowing transgender girls to compete in sports is both hateful and illegal, the state asserted in a federal court lawsuit Monday. The suit by Attorney General Rob Bonta's office on behalf of state education officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration was triggered by last week's threat from President Donald Trump to withhold all federal aid to public schools in the state — more than $8 billion a year — after a transgender athete, AB Hernandez of Jurupa Valley High School, won two events at the state high school track meet. Harmeet Dhillon, the top civil rights official in Trump's Justice Department, has also told California school districts that they would forfeit federal funding unless they defied an order by the California Interscholastic Federation to allow students to join teams that corresponded with their gender identity. 'The demand that (school districts) discriminate against students on the basis of sex-based characteristics and gender identity … invites discrimination, harassment, and hostility into educational programs and activities, which undermine the social and emotional well-being of all students (and especially the well-being of transgender students),' the state's lawyers said in a suit filed in federal court in San Francisco. Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20, his first day in office, declaring a government policy to 'recognize only two sexes, male and female,' as determined at birth. In addition to renewing efforts from his first administration to exclude trans athletes from girls' and women's sports and ban trans soldiers from the U.S. military, he has cut off federal funding for transgender health care. Dhillon, who practiced law in San Francisco before joining the Trump administration, has described transgender females as 'men pretending to be women.' The California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees sports competition in California public schools, implemented a state law in 2013 with an official policy declaring that students 'should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity.' Dhillon's June 2 letter to school districts asserted that the CIF policy would 'allow male participation in girls' interscholastic activities,' in violation of the U.S. Constitution's ban on sex discrimination. But the state's lawsuit, filed against the U.S. Justice Department, said it was Dhillon who was advocating discrimination. 'Prevailing law holds that (Dhillon's) demand — namely, for schools to categorically ban transgender students from participating in athletic programs in accordance with their gender identity — violates the Equal Protection Clause,' the 14th Amendment's ban on government policies that discriminate based on race, ethnicity or gender. Deputy Attorney General Edward Nugent wrote in the court filing. He cited recent court rulings, including a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last September that an Arizona law banning transgender girls and women from female sports teams in schools and colleges was 'the essence of discrimination.' The Supreme Court, however, has not yet ruled on a case raising similar issues, a challenge to laws in Tennessee and other states that prohibit hormone treatments and other gender-affirming care for minors who identify as transgender. Nugent said Congress, whose laws govern Dhillon's Justice Department, has never authorized the department to issue a demand like Dhillon's letter to California schools. And he said medical studies show that transgender teenagers are 'at far higher risk of suicide' than other youths, particularly when their gender identity is denied. 'Athletics allow students to gain confidence, develop important social and emotional skills, build social connections, and experience the camaraderie of being on a team,' the state's lawsuit said. 'Being able to live consistent with one's gender identity is critical to one's health and well-being,' and that identity 'cannot be changed by medical, psychological or social intervention.'
San Francisco Chronicle
08-06-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
How support helped AB Hernandez, trans track and field champ ‘with mad attitude,' brave national backlash
JURUPA VALLEY, Riverside County — After two transgender girls were bullied out of competing at the California state track and field championships in 2023, jumper AB Hernandez was prepared to make the leap 'alone' in a potentially hostile Veteran's Memorial Stadium some hundred miles away from home when her time came in 2025. The applause she heard when her name was announced in Clovis as a finalist for the long jump, after her mere presence had attracted the scorn of none other than the President of the United States, helped her realize she was safe. 'I was expecting for it to be dead silent,' AB said. It was the kind of acceptance she was once hesitant to ask for, even of her mother. Flash back to when she was in ninth grade. At 1:30 a.m. one morning in the Hernandez household, AB wept. Her identity as a transgender girl was years removed from becoming national news. Only her mom, Nereyda, could console her. At AB's bedside, Nereyda asked, 'What's wrong?' Nothing, she would learn. Nothing was wrong. AB had begun dressing as a girl about a year earlier. She wore a blanket hoodie most mornings to conceal as much, unsure how Nereyda, who raised four kids in a Catholic family, regularly attending Sunday Mass, might react. AB holed up in her room as much as possible to limit any potential risk of being found out. A friend of Nereyda's eventually filled her in, assuming she already knew. Nereyda admitted she did not fully understand at first. That early morning, some months later, cleared all doubt. A broken-down AB said she did not know how to be a boy. 'It was definitely difficult in the beginning but she let whatever she had known go,' AB told the Chronicle. 'She's like, 'You're still my kid, so this is what it's going to be.'' Last weekend, AB Hernandez was crowned a California Interscholastic Federation state champion in triple jump and high jump. In accordance with the CIF's new policy, she was accompanied by at least one peer on all of her podium placements, including when she finished second in long jump. A duplicate medal was awarded to the jumper who finished one spot behind AB in her three events, an attempt at compromise announced after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the state if AB was allowed to compete in the girls division. Nereyda, a former Trump supporter, watched as the President's comments rallied what she called a 'culture war' among conservative and liberal politicians, activists and pundits, only several months after her daughter had been outed as trans via doxxing by Sonja Shaw, school board president of the Chino Valley Unified School District in San Bernardino County. AB, 16, found a path forward through support she received. 'They picked the right kid for us, the wrong kid for them because, like (the protestors) said, we will not back down," she said. At the behest of a friend, the first sport AB signed up for as a freshman at Jurupa Valley High was volleyball. She hesitated, for fear of upsetting others on the team. But her friend was adamant. 'I was like, 'OK, fine with me,' as long as I have one friend,' AB said. 'But then that one friend turned into all of them being my friends.' A similar process ushered her into track and field. She did not join to switch from the boys to girls division in an effort to gain a competitive advantage — an argument invented by a handful of protesters at this year's state meet who also mistook AB, a jumper, for a runner. She had never competed against a boy in high school sports to begin with. Sports offered a space for her to just be herself, another one of the girls. Nightly Facetime calls with a friend group of seven to eight helped steady her ahead of a weekend in Clovis that saw her chased down by a reporter from the Daily Mail, a London tabloid, in the Veteran's Memorial Parking Lot, the odd conclusion to what was, for her, an otherwise normal CIF state championships meet. Fortunately for AB, she had the group she refers to as her future bridesmaids to laugh with after the fact. 'I got into (sports) like any other teenage girl — with her friends,' she said. AB started as a hurdler at the recommendation of Jurupa Valley High School head coach Kevin Garcia, who would shortly come to find out her best event was one in which he had limited experience coaching. They spent countless hours at the sand pit, each learning from the other after every trial and error of long jump, a field event that requires as much strength and power as it does technical skill. She often took practice time away from her other two jumping events to master it. By her sophomore year, AB medaled third in the long jump. This year as a junior, she finished fourth — nationally. Her attempt of 12.87 meters, a personal record that comfortably positioned her atop the finals leaderboard at the CIF state meet, ranked fourth in the country behind two seniors from Illinois (Dominique Johnson, Huntley) and Pennsylvania (Destini Smith, Souderton Area), and one junior out of Texas (Mia Maxwell of Humble Atascocita). 'Since we were learning it together, I couldn't make mistakes,' AB said of Garcia. 'He didn't really know what a mistake was yet. So it was more just fun to me.' In Clovis, AB made her best long jump, high jump and triple jump only after several hecklers yelled at her on the last day. She was initially mad, then motivated. She faulted on her first long jump attempt because, according to her, she was running extra fast. This wasn't the same AB who'd once hid in her room. She felt normal, yet no less exceptional. The camaraderie AB found alongside those who shared the podium with her provided further assurance that she belonged. Nereyda was proud; her youngest had found her place. In a world increasingly hostile to kids like her daughter, that's all she could ask for. The fact that AB matched her own 'sass' while doing so was a bonus. 'I get a lot of hate comments but I don't care,' AB said. 'A 16-year-old girl with mad attitude, like you think I'm going to care? … As long as it gets me into the modeling industry, I don't care. I'm 5-foot-9. Hit me up. I'll walk for Dior, maybe.' AB is not certain what her future holds. She intends to participate in track and field again next spring. She has heard from colleges with preliminary interest in her as a track and field athlete. She also doesn't know whether the NCAA, which announced in February its readiness to follow Trump's executive order that limits participation in women's athletics to competitors it says were 'assigned female at birth only,' will ultimately let her compete after previously allowing trans athletes to compete. For now, AB is looking forward to life as a 16-year-old. Coloring while watching the final season of 'Stranger Things.' Grooming her goldendoodle, Bear. Summer volleyball practice. Nereyda hopes things return to normal in the coming months. But whatever new challenges arise, nothing can take away from a mother having seen her daughter at her happiest. Sometime after that initial, impromptu heart-to-heart in the dead of night, AB and Nereyda were scheduled to attend a friend's quinceañera. AB walked out wearing a red dress, an unusually wide smile, and a look that longed for her mom's nod of approval. Nereyda knew then that nothing mattered more to her than her daughter. 'If it feels right, you'll know in your heart of hearts, you'll just know that this is right, this is me,' AB said. 'And there's just that sense of relief once it happens… a sense of relief and comfort in knowing who you are and just focusing on that.'
San Francisco Chronicle
07-06-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump repeats threats to California over transgender track state champion
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump targeted California's education funding again after a transgender student won two high school track and field events at the state meet Sunday. AB Hernandez, 16, became the center of political controversy overnight because she is transgender and running in girls track and field in California. Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the state of California in a May 27 Truth Social post prior to the meet because of her presence and issued a similar threat for 'large scale fines' Tuesday after she was crowned a California state champion in girls triple jump and high jump. The California Interscholastic Federation adopted regulations in 2013 allowing students to engage in high school sports 'in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student's records.' The same year, California lawmakers codified into state law that students could participate in school programs consistent with their gender identity. After Trump's May 27 threat, the CIF changed its rules to allow the athlete with the next-best qualifying mark in three events to participate and to issue a duplicate medal to the next-best finisher behind Hernandez in those events. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon threatened legal action Monday against California public schools if they continue allowing transgender athletes to compete in accordance with their gender identity. The attack on California's education funding over transgender girls' participation in girls' sports teams came as little surprise after the Justice Department filed suit against Maine in April for a similar policy. The White House argues policies like those in California and Maine are discriminatory, and therefore allow it to terminate federal K-12 funding to those states. Trump ordered investigations into all three, but has moved more swiftly in its dispute with Maine, whose governor publicly challenged Trump over the policy. Several education policy researchers and attorneys previously told the Chronicle that Maine is a test case, intended to see whether the Trump administration can subvert the normal process for cutting funds — as well as terminate all education funding to a state, rather than a more targeted cut. The Education Department is investigating California, Minnesota and Oregon's high school athletic associations, individual school districts in Oregon and Washington, the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State University for allowing transgender athletes to compete on teams consistent with their gender identities. The Education Department confirmed Tuesday that it has opened an investigation into a Connecticut school system for allowing transgender athletes to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender identity. California received about $8 billion in federal funding for K-12 education in the 2024-25 school year, about 6% of its total budget, according to the state Department of Education. Of that, $2.5 billion was for low-income students under Title I, $1.5 billion for special education and students with disabilities, $157 million for English as a second language programs, and $5.7 million for nutritional services. To terminate funding, the Trump administration will need to argue that allowing athletics participation based on gender identity rather than sex assigned at birth violates Title IX. Several federal courts have found the opposite: that if a school tells a transgender athlete they can't participate in certain sports or use bathrooms in accordance with their gender identity, it is discriminating against that student on the basis of sex.
