Girls high school track team walks off in protest of male athlete

Several girls on Camas High School’s cross country team walked off during a meet against Battle Ground High School in Washington in protest of an athlete switching from the male to female competition.

Roughly half of the 24 girls on the Camas team reportedly refused to compete against an athlete who began the season competing with the boys’ team.

When the race began, about half of the girls competing took off running while several others walked forward past the starting line and into the tree line, forfeiting one of their races, per reports.

Runner Holly Burns chose to partake in the protest after her teammates decided they wanted to do something about the situation.

Burns’ parents took part in a campaign of their own, bringing signs in protest of the athlete being allowed to compete in the girls’ races.

“So I just went ahead and held up my sign, and they had several security guards following me and pestering me and telling me that I would have to leave. And I just said, ‘No, I’m not going to leave,’” Kevin Burns said.

The switch was permitted under the rules of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which is the governing body of high school sports in Washington, but several parents have voiced concerns.

The incident is just the latest in the debate over transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

The state of Washington will vote on Initiative 638 on Nov. 3, which will ban biological males from competing in girls’ K-12 sports if it passes.

Twenty-seven other states have similar laws, but all were enacted by state legislatures rather than voting.