Quakertown student says her rights were violated after competing against Colonial trans athlete

A student at Quakertown Community High School is suing her district, the Colonial School District, and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association after she says she was forced to compete against a transgender student from Plymouth Whitemarsh High School at cross-country and track meets.

In a lawsuit filed on her daughter’s behalf in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia in January, Holly Magalengo, the mother of the Quakertown student, said her daughter placed second to the Plymouth Whitemarsh athlete during a September cross-country meet and that having to compete against the transgender student violated her constitutional rights.

Her daughter told the Plymouth Whitemarsh athlete, “You are not a girl. You should not be racing against girls,” according to the lawsuit, which identifies the two students only by their initials.

Plymouth Whitemarsh coaches complained about the remark to Quakertown’s athletic director, who referred Magalengo to PIAA’s bylaws at the time: “Where a student’s gender is questioned or uncertain, the decision of the Principal as to the student’s gender will be accepted by the PIAA.” The decision, Quakertown’s athletic director told Magalengo, was Plymouth Whitemarsh’s.

A Quakertown spokesperson said Friday that “it is not within our power to control the actions of another school.” The Colonial School District declined to comment Friday on the lawsuit, but said that “since 2019, the district has followed our school board policy for gender expansive and transgender students.”

“We continue to comply with federal and state law prohibitions on sex discrimination, including the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics,” the district said in a statement, adding that it works “to cultivate a culture of belonging for all students.”

The lawsuit — which also seeks a temporary restraining order “to halt biological males from participating in women’s sports” — comes as President Donald Trump has issued a series of executive orders rejecting “gender ideology” and declaring that the country only recognize two sexes, and promising to rescind federal funds from educational institutions “that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.”

In the wake of those orders, PIAA on Feb. 19 changed its bylaws, which now say that when a student’s sex is uncertain — rather than gender — the decision of the school as to the student’s sex will be accepted by PIAA. “In accordance with the Presidential Executive Order 14201 entitled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,’ dated Feb. 5, 2025, schools are required to consult with their school solicitors relative to compliance with the Order,” the new PIAA policy reads.

Despite the PIAA rule change, the Philadelphia school district said this week it would continue to follow its policy allowing transgender students to participate on sports teams matching their gender identities.

In her motion for a temporary restraining order, Magalengo said the PIAA “has provided that they concur” with her request for barring transgender female students from participating in women’s sports. Lyndsay Barna, PIAA’s assistant executive director, said Friday that the organization could not comment on active litigation.

The Colonial School District, meanwhile, “has indicated they will oppose this motion,” Magalengo said in the motion. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Tuesday.

Solomon Radner, a Michigan-based lawyer for Magalengo, did not immediately return a request for comment Friday. Magalengo is also represented by Devon Jacob, a civil rights lawyer in Mechanicsburg who has been involved in high-profile cases, including representing the family of George Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis in 2020. He directed a request for comment to Radner.

Magalengo’s lawsuit, which was filed Jan. 20, alleges her daughter’s constitutional rights under the 14th Amendment were violated when she had to compete against the transgender student in September and during a December track meet, depriving her of “equal protection of the laws.”

“Women and men are not biologically equal,” the lawsuit says, citing a 2010 paper on the gender gap in world records for Olympic events.

The lawsuit also names as a defendant the U.S. Department of Education, citing rules passed under former President Joe Biden’s administration that defined Title IX discrimination as including “discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” A federal judge struck down those rules in January.

An Education Department spokesperson declined to comment.