TACOMA, Wash. – Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a motion Friday asking a federal district court to require Washington state officials to respect parental rights and protect female athletes.
ADF attorneys represent teenage wrestler Kallie Keeler and her mother, Stephanie Brown, in their case against state officials who directed Keeler to take the mat without telling anyone that she was about to wrestle a male, who sexually assaulted her during the match. Brown quickly reported the sexual assault, with video evidence, to coaches and school staff, but those district officials waited 53 days to report it to law enforcement, in violation of a mandatory 48-hour reporting law.
“A 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted because of political cowardice. Washington state officials insist on pushing gender ideology at all costs—even at the expense of girls’ safety and privacy,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights. “Our client’s story is proof of the grave harms caused by lying about biology. This must end—otherwise, girls will continue getting hurt. Washington’s policies put Kallie at risk of unknowingly wrestling a male again, risking injury, emotional distress, and other harm—unless Kallie leaves the sport she loves. We’re urging the court to hold state officials accountable and require them to respect parental rights and prioritize girls’ safety in sports.”
Keeler, who was 15 at the time of the incident, was matched against a male athlete without her or her mother’s knowledge during a high school girls’ wrestling tournament, an event sponsored by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association in December 2025. During the match, the male athlete sexually assaulted Keeler. She appeared visibly distressed while competing and tried to communicate what was happening to her mother, who was recording the match. As ADF attorneys explain, the assault was not a wrestling move—it was a flagrant foul and criminal conduct—sexual assault in its truest form. She left the mat crying, but her coaches did nothing.
After the match was finished, another team’s coach informed her that her opponent was male. In addition to waiting nearly two months to report the sexual assault—and then, only doing so after the story broke publicly in the media—district officials told Brown and her daughter that their policy of allowing males to compete on girls’ teams would remain the same. If Keeler returns to wrestling, she can be matched against a male athlete again without notice and over her objection. So she and her mother are asking the court to protect their rights and the rights of all girls in Washington not to be unknowingly forced to compete against a male athlete.
The motion for preliminary injunction filed in K.M.K. v. Washington Interscholastic Activities Association specifically requests that state officials respect Brown’s parental rights by ensuring that her daughter will not be matched against male wrestlers, or at the minimum, give Brown notice ahead of time and the ability to opt Keeler out of competition without penalty or forfeit. The motion further explains that Title IX protects Keeler from having to compete against male athletes. In a landmark decision protecting female athletes, the U.S. Supreme Court recently affirmed the core physiological differences between males and females that justify sex-designation in competitive sports.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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