An Illinois county has become the latest flashpoint in the national battle over transgender athletes in female sports after a male player made the Conant High School girls’ volleyball team.
The incident has sparked outrage among parents and community members.
The controversy exploded at a District 211 school board meeting in Hoffman Estates on Wednesday night.
Angry parents lined up to demand answers after news broke that a male athlete was placed on the girls’ roster while girls who had trained for years were cut.
One anonymous parent told Fox News that her daughter was devastated after failing to make the team, only to learn that a male student had taken one of the coveted spots.
She said her daughter cried after the first day of school.
According to parents, the male student quit the very next day, but not before igniting a firestorm.
Parents also claim that the school’s longtime girls’ volleyball coach resigned from coaching the girls’ team entirely, now working only with boys’ volleyball.
Outraged mother Karen Powers delivered an impassioned speech at the meeting, drawing loud applause from other parents.
“A longtime beloved coach of the girls’ volleyball team quit, and if she is here or watching, I have the utmost respect for you standing firm on your morals and values,” she said before shouting:
“It’s not a girl’s responsibility to feel uncomfortable or unsafe for the sake of a boy pretending to be a girl! He should be participating in sports designated for boys because he will always be one!
“When do the girls in D 2-11 get to feel safe, recognized, and protected!?”
Angela Christman, a teacher and mother, condemned the district’s policies as a violation of privacy and safety.
“My daughter will not hide in spaces where she was told she would be protected.
“And she will not be counseled into feeling comfortable taking her clothes off in front of a 6-foot-4 biological male, and frankly, it’s criminal that that’s the solution that you offer.”
Another mother, Vickie Wilson, called the policy “egregiously unfair” and accused the district of pushing harmful ideology.
“If you actually cared about these kids, you wouldn’t promote a dangerous ideology that does not get to the root of their problems.
“It pushes experimental and dangerous interventions that enable greedy people to turn them into lifelong lucrative patients, very often leading to serious regret and higher suicidality.”
Several parents pointed to the case of North Carolina volleyball player Payton McNabb, who was left permanently injured after being spiked in the face by a male athlete during a 2022 match.
They warned the district that similar incidents could happen again.
Supporters of transgender athletes also spoke.
One argued that using McNabb’s injury as justification for banning males from girls’ sports was unfair, claiming that “cisgender” female athletes have caused injuries as well.
Conant High has been at the center of this debate before.
In 2015, the school district clashed with President Barack Obama’s Department of Education after initially refusing a male student access to the girls’ locker room.
The Obama administration punished the district with sanctions until it allowed the male student into female spaces.
That battle set the stage for Illinois’ ongoing controversy.
The Illinois High School Association has openly defied President Trump’s executive order barring males from girls’ and women’s sports, declaring in April that it would continue allowing transgender athletes to compete.
Illinois parents across multiple districts have raised alarms this year.
In May, a seventh-grade track meet in Naperville drew national attention after a boy was allowed to run against girls, prompting heated school board debates.
Nicole Georgas, a mother who has led a federal Title IX complaint, said the latest incident proves parents are being ignored.
“We as the parents have had enough,” Georgas told Fox.
“We are at the forefront, we are in the crosshairs, and we need help.
“We need help right now.
“In our state, nothing has changed from March, and it’s getting worse.”
Despite rising anger, Illinois Democrats and school boards continue to push forward with “transgender inclusion” policies, leaving girls and parents feeling betrayed, violated, and sidelined.
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