An Oregon high school track and field coach claims she was fired after she challenged state officials’ policies on transgender athletes after she witnessed a trans athlete being “booed” during a state championship.
John Parks, a former coach at Lake Oswego High School, is calling for changes to the current state law that he believes undermines the integrity of girls’ athletics by allowing transgender students to compete according to the gender they identify as, according to KATU.
Parks wrote a letter to the Executive Director of the Oregon Student Activities Association (OSAA), Peter Weber, and state Sen. Rob Wagner, asking the state to consider supporting an “open division” for transgender athletes that does not discriminate against them “but gives them the opportunity to participate.”
Those concerns arose during the state championships in May, when a former coach observed a transgender athlete being “booed” after winning the girls’ event and felt the current policy might be doing more harm than good to students, Parks said.
The former coach said he had two transgender athletes on his track and field team during the spring and only raised concerns after witnessing the reaction firsthand, he revealed in an email to The Oregonian.
“I support them like all the other athletes and just look for a win-win solution for everyone because we don’t need athletes going through what happened last month,” he said.
In a letter to state officials, he noted how transgender student-athletes are favored to win the 200-meter and 400-meter races and are on track to break state records in both events.
Aayden Gallagher, of McDaniel High School, won the state title by two-tenths of a second and was booed as he crossed the finish line of the race.
“Allowing this travesty to be carried out makes a complete mockery of the meeting this weekend and in the future until the rules are changed to protect natural born women,” he wrote in a letter to OSAA, according to the outlet.
However, he asked the OSAA to consider creating a separate section for events like the state championships, which already exist for “wheelchair athletes and United competitions.”
“The solution for trans athletes is to have open categories like gender-neutral bathrooms,” Parks wrote.
“Allow competition opportunities but don’t make a mockery of the reason women compete in their own categories.”
Despite respectfully expressing his grievances in his letters, the Lake Oswego School District canned him.
The Director of Communications in the Lake Oswego School District, Mary Kay Larson, confirmed to KATU that Parks is no longer working for the district but refused to go into detail about what reasons they found for terminating his employment.
Parks, who began working at the school in January 2023, said the district removed her ability to express her opinion to state officials.
But Parks did not go down quietly and decided to appeal the termination.
“I’m going to fight now because I made a mistake,” the former coach said.
“I’m … fighting for girls, I’m fighting for women’s sports, and I’m fighting for fairness for everyone.”
However, dozens of parents and student-athletes, upset over the termination, showed support for the fired coach at a board meeting on Monday, according to KATU.
“I think John wanted the best for everybody,” said Addie Rodriguez, a freshman at Lake Oswego High School.
“They want the best for transgender female athletes and they want the best for other female athletes, and I don’t think that has anything to do with transgender people.”
“It’s about making sure that we have equal opportunities and are safe for all female athletes, and that’s all that’s asked of them,” Lake Oswego parent Kristen Binkley said.
Parks had coached sprints at the professional and Olympic levels for 20 years before he took the job at Lake Oswego High School, according to The Oregonian.
The Oregon Student Activities Association’s 2016 policy allows students to participate in categories that align with a “consistently affirmed gender identity,” which is designed to promote inclusivity, according to the association’s handbook.
