Investigated for Saying ‘You’re a Man,’ Washington Teen Calls Ferguson, Reykdal ‘Cowards’ as I-638 Vote Nears

A Washington high school basketball player who was investigated for harassment after she told a biological male opponent “you’re a man” went on national television on October 16, 2026, to tell voters to pass Initiative 638. The 17-year-old Tumwater High School senior used her time on Fox News to call out the state’s top education official and, by name, Gov. Bob Ferguson: “Bob Ferguson has no guts. They do not protect the girls of Washington state. They’re cowards and they lie.”

The measure is on the November 3 ballot. If it passes, I-638 would make Washington the first state where voters, not lawmakers, decide whether boys can compete in girls’ school sports.

The game she refused to play

The story goes back to early February 2025, when Tumwater High School hosted Shelton High School in girls’ basketball. KOMO News dated the game February 6. Shelton’s roster included a transgender athlete, a biological male. It was the last game of the Tumwater player’s sophomore season, and she had just come back from injury.

She described what happened in her October 16 interview: “When I was 15 years old on my sophomore season of basketball as my last game, there was an 18-year-old man in my locker room as well as competing against my girls’ basketball team. So due to this, I chose to sit out. I raised my concerns to my principal, my athletic director. Nothing was done. They would not help me in any way.”

She said she had fought back from “a pretty severe ankle injury” and was excited to play. “I was absolutely distraught over this,” she said. “I just got taken away all in a short second because a man was allowed to compete against my team. So while walking out, I said, you’re a man to him.”

According to Fox News reporting at the time, her mother said the athletic director cited Washington state law barring discrimination when the family objected. On February 6, Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal emailed the state’s school superintendents telling them to “continue to follow state law,” according to KOMO News.

Investigated for one sentence

What happened next is the part that should outrage every parent in the state. The Tumwater School District opened an investigation into the girl for “misgendering” her opponent, Fox News reported. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), which governs high school sports in the state, ruled that her remark violated its code of ethics, according to KOMO.

Fox News reported that a letter later found she had violated WIAA policy, though not Tumwater School District policy, and put her on notice that further incidents could bring discipline. Her family also said they received threats after she spoke out on social media.

In her October interview, she said she was “investigated by the WIAA” and the Tumwater School District “for harassment and bullying.” She also said the opposing athlete later referred to himself as a man in an online interview, while she was still the one investigated for misgendering.

The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism filed a civil rights complaint on her behalf. In early March 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened a Title IX investigation into the Tumwater School District. Craig Trainor, then the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said the department would “vigorously enforce Title IX to ensure men stop competing in women’s sports,” and that if Washington wants federal funds, “it has to follow federal law.” On February 27, 2025, the Tumwater school board passed a resolution supporting a WIAA policy change that would limit girls’ categories to students born female, KOMO reported. The WIAA has since said it is committed to following Washington state law.

“Brains aren’t going to fully develop until they’re 25”

Her latest interview came the same week Washington’s girls’ sports fight boiled over again. On October 13, members of the Camas High School girls’ cross-country team walked off the starting line rather than race alongside a teammate who had switched from the boys’ team to the girls’ team midseason. On Seattle’s “Jake and Spike” radio show, host Jake Skorheim pointed out that the runner had placed 76th running for the boys earlier in the year. OutKick reported that the same runner later won a varsity girls’ meet.

Asked on Skorheim’s show whether that was fair to the girls, Reykdal said: “I don’t see it that way, Jake. I just don’t. These are young, developing people whose brains aren’t going to fully develop until they’re 25.” Earlier in the interview, he had said, “The much larger issue here is: Can we accommodate 10, 12, 15 kids a year and make them feel included?”

Nobody asked about brain development. The question was about bodies, and about whether girls who train for years should have to forfeit to someone who was racing with the boys a few weeks earlier.

The Tumwater senior didn’t hold back. “We have a state superintendent who does absolutely nothing,” she told Fox News. “He has no guts.” She said state leaders “create false accusations about the girls who are just trying to stand up for themselves,” and added: “Girls are crying out, asking to be heard, asking to be protected in their locker rooms, on their courts, on their fields, and they’re still not listening. So we need the adults to vote yes and to have common sense for the girls.”

What I-638 would do

Initiative 638, brought by the group Let’s Go Washington, would require school districts and nonprofit athletic organizations to “prohibit biologically male students from competing with and against female students” in sports meant only for girls. A student who wants to play on a girls’ team would need a form signed by a health care provider verifying biological sex as part of the regular sports physical. Under the measure, sex can be verified by “the student’s reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup or normal endogenously produced testosterones levels,” according to KOMO.

Opponents say the measure could lead to invasive exams of girls. Supporters say the text requires no such thing; it calls for a health care provider’s signed form as part of the routine sports physical the athlete already has to get. The Tumwater senior told KOMO that the exam warnings amount to “lies.” Twenty-seven states have similar laws, but none was passed directly by voters, OutKick reported. A poll released by Let’s Go Washington showed 56% of likely voters supporting the measure, 24% opposed and 22% undecided. The campaign commissioned that poll, and it has not released full methodology.

The girl from Tumwater has been campaigning with Let’s Go Washington and has appeared at a Vancouver, Washington, rally for the measure. Her message, as quoted by KOMO in September, was simple: “I don’t want any other girl to have to go through what I went through.”

Washington investigated a 15-year-old girl for telling the truth, and on November 3 its voters get to say whether that truth matters.

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