A 15-year-old girl from Bridgeport, West Virginia, is suing the Department of Education, claiming there were a series of incidents in which a boy who competed against her and other girls in track and field events made rape threats against her.
According to the girl’s statement, she is currently a ninth-grade student at Bridgeport High School (BHS) who competes in discus, shot put, and the 4 x 100 relay. In sixth through eighth grade, she attended Bridgeport Middle School (BMS), where in seventh grade (the 2021–22 school year), she competed in the 100-meter dash, pole vault, shot put, and discus, and sometimes competed in the 200-meter dash and relay events.
“To my surprise, another BMS student named B.P.J. joined the girls’ track and field team,” she noted. “B.P.J. is almost two years younger than me, and one year behind me in school. Because I know B.P.J.’s older brother from school, I knew at the beginning of the 2021–22 school year that B.P.J. is a male who identifies as a girl.”
She recalled that initially, she was better than the boy in shot put and discus, but by the end of seventh grade, he threw about the same distance in shot put: around 18–20 feet. “In discus, I typically beat B.P.J.: I threw around 40 feet while B.P.J. threw closer to 30 feet. But in the last meet of the 2021–22 season, B.P.J. suddenly threw almost 20 feet farther: 49’ 7”,” she stated.
“By the next school year (2022–23), I could tell that B.P.J. had grown a lot. B.P.J. got taller and threw farther. B.P.J. got a deeper and more masculine voice,” she wrote. In March 2023, B.P.J. finished ahead of the girl at the Connect Bridgeport Invitational in shot put and in discus. In April, B.P.J. beat her at the Pioneer MS Invitational in discus. Later in April, B.P.J. beat her at the Bobcat MS meet in shot put and discus.
“B.P.J.’s athletic records show that B.P.J. beat over 50 different female athletes in the 2021–22 school year, displacing several of the female athletes more than once. These records show that B.P.J. beat over 100 different female athletes in the 2022–23 school year, displacing them almost 300 times. I also lost to B.P.J. on four separate occasions that school year,” the lawsuit states.
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“B.P.J. made several offensive and inappropriate sexual comments to me,” she recalled. “At first, it did not occur often, and I tried my best to ignore it. But during my final year of middle school, B.P.J. made inappropriate sexual comments a lot more often; it increased throughout that year; and the comments became much more aggressive, vile, and disturbing. Sometimes B.P.J.’s comments were just annoying, like commenting that I have a ‘nice butt.’ But other times, I felt really embarrassed, and I didn’t want to repeat the gross things B.P.J. said to me. During the end of that year, about two to three times per week, B.P.J. would look at me and say ‘suck my d***.’ There were usually other girls around who heard this. I heard B.P.J. say the same thing to my other teammates, too.”
“B.P.J. made other more explicit sexual statements that felt threatening to me,” she continued. “At times, B.P.J. told me quietly ‘I’m gonna stick my d*** into your p****.’ And B.P.J. sometimes added ‘and in your a**’ as well. … B.P.J. made these vulgar comments towards me in the locker room, on the track, and in the throwing pit for discus and shotput.”
“Most of the time, B.P.J. made these sexual comments at girls’ track practice. Our team walked from Bridgeport Middle School to the High School for track practice, where we would train on the high school track,” she stated. “B.P.J. often popped up beside me as we walked and said these things. Other times, B.P.J. made comments as our team was sitting in the endzone waiting for coaches to get practice going. At least one time, it happened in the girls’ locker room.”
“I reported B.P.J.’s sexual comments to my coach and middle school administrators. Initially, the administrators told me that they were investigating, but we never heard back, and nothing changed. From what I saw, B.P.J. got very little or no punishment for saying things that no other student would get away with,” she concluded.
“I also worry about the little 6th grade girls who are on the same team as B.P.J. right now,” she wrote. “If I were in 6th grade and had to deal with sexual comments from a biological male two years older than me who was changing in the same locker room as me, I wouldn’t even play sports. It wouldn’t be worth it. My younger sister will be a freshman in high school when B.P.J is a senior. She is a good athlete, but she is very shy, and I can’t imagine how she would feel if B.P.J. said those sexual comments to her while they were competing in sports or changing in the locker room. I do not want that to happen.”
