Puyallup Wrestler’s Family Asks Supreme Court to Block Forced Matches Against Male Opponent

The family of a 15-year-old Puyallup wrestler has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency injunction after she was allegedly assaulted during a match against a transgender opponent last December, as lower courts have repeatedly declined to intervene before the next wrestling season begins.

Kallie Keeler, identified in court filings as K.M.K., was competing for third place at the Lady Jag Kickoff, an all-girls tournament, when she faced an opponent she and her mother, Stephanie Lynne Brown, say they did not know was a biological male. During the match, they allege, the opponent penetrated her. A coach from another team later told her the opponent was male.

Keeler left her wrestling team in January. Her mother then asked the Puyallup school district to guarantee that her daughter would not be made to wrestle a male opponent without facing a penalty for opting out. The district declined, saying Keeler could only opt out if she already knew in advance that an opponent was male, and that it would keep gender-identity information confidential.

The U.S. Department of Education opened a Title IX investigation into the district in February. Two administrators at Rogers High School were later charged with failing to make a mandatory report. The opponent was not charged.

Lower Courts Decline to Act

A federal judge in Tacoma denied a preliminary injunction on Aug. 23. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an emergency injunction on Sept. 25, treating the request as a mandatory injunction and finding the family had not shown a strong enough likelihood of success to justify relief before the season starts. Washington’s wrestling season opens in mid-November.

Alliance Defending Freedom, representing the family, has now filed an emergency application with Justice Elena Kagan asking for an injunction pending appeal in the case, K.M.K. v. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. The application asks the Court to stop officials from forcing Keeler to wrestle a male opponent while her appeal moves forward.