Washington female wrestler appeals Title IX case over alleged assault by trans opponent to Ninth Circuit
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A Washington high school athlete has taken her Title IX lawsuit to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking emergency safety protections before the upcoming wrestling season after she was allegedly sexually assaulted on the mat by a trans competitor last winter.
The teenager at the center of the lawsuit, previously identified by OutKick as Kallie Keeler, is referred to in court as K.M.K.
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Alliance Defending Freedom announced Thursday, exclusively to OutKick, that it filed an emergency motion on behalf of K.M.K. and her mother, Stephanie Brown. The filing asks the appeals court to act by Sept. 25 and challenge policies enforced by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Puyallup School District.
After Brown and K.M.K. asked the court to protect her from another matchup against a biological male, U.S. District Judge David Castillo denied their request for a preliminary injunction on Aug. 23.
Brown and K.M.K. appealed on Aug. 25 and asked Castillo to protect K.M.K. while the appeal moved forward. When he denied that request on Aug. 31, ADF took the case to the Ninth Circuit.
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The case dates back to a South Puget Sound League tournament match on Dec. 6, 2025, at Emerald Ridge High School involving Rogers High School. K.M.K. took the mat without being told that her opponent was a biological male who identifies as trans.
During the match, the male competitor allegedly shoved his fingers through K.M.K.’s clothing and penetrated her genital area for several seconds. The complaint alleges K.M.K. allowed herself to be pinned to escape the encounter.
Washington state girls wrestler Kallie Keeler (Alliance Defending Freedom)
K.M.K. and her mother say they were never told before the match that she would face a trans competitor. They argue that Washington officials have left the door open to trans participation in girls’ high school athletics while keeping female athletes and their parents in the dark about potential safety risks.
The family says the school’s response after the match deepened its concerns.
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Brown first alerted Rogers wrestling coach Lucia Scott on Dec. 8, two days after the match. She provided video evidence and asked the school to address what had happened. Scott allegedly forwarded the report to athletic director Peter Collins, who then involved principal Jason Smith.
“From that point, I kind of took the lead in talking to the coaches, and I made sure to send them an email and let them know what happened and ask them to kind of handle the situation,” Brown previously told OutKick. “They assured me they were looking into it. They assured me it was gonna be handled. They passed it off to all these people, and then we just never heard anything else about it, like nothing further about it until we started pressing them.”
The family alleges that school administrators waited 55 days to report the matter to authorities. According to the complaint, Smith notified a school resource officer on Jan. 30, 2026, while the district formally reported the matter to state child-welfare authorities on Feb. 12.
Brown also told OutKick that the coach initially said officials did not know a biological male was in the bracket.
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“The reaction was that the coach said that they didn’t know that there was a biological male in the bracket,” Brown said. “They said they would never have put her on the mat had they known, because she said she wouldn’t have put any of her athletes in that position.”
Brown also alleges Smith initially responded to the incident by saying, “That’s wrestling.”
Brown said the family ultimately filed the lawsuit because officials failed to respond properly to her daughter’s report.
“The decision to file the lawsuit was because the schools didn’t take our report of what happened to her seriously,” Brown told OutKick. “They didn’t do anything to investigate it, correct it. They didn’t even keep in contact with me.”
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A subsequent district investigation allegedly acknowledged that the opponent likely touched K.M.K.’s private parts with force, causing her discomfort. But when Castillo denied the preliminary injunction, he did not describe the incident as an assault.
Instead, he ruled that the family had not shown K.M.K. faced a sufficiently likely risk of being harmed again under the legal standard for emergency relief.
Washington state girls’ wrestler Kallie Keeler (Alliance Defending Freedom)
That ruling is now one of the main issues before the Ninth Circuit.
ADF argues that forcing K.M.K. to compete against biological males, or making her give up her season if she refuses, violates Brown’s constitutional parental rights under Mirabelli v. Bonta. The attorneys also argue that the policy denies K.M.K. equal athletic opportunity under Title IX.
The filing cites the Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. B.P.J., in which the justices recognized that biological differences can create particularly serious safety risks in girls’ contact sports and place female athletes at a competitive disadvantage.
Brown and ADF want the Ninth Circuit to prevent officials from forcing K.M.K. to wrestle a biological male. At minimum, Brown wants advance notice and the ability to remove her daughter from any such match.
The WIAA told OutKick it was unable to comment due to pending litigation.
OutKick reached out to the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Washington Superintendent Chris Reykdal and the Puyallup School District for comment on K.M.K.’s appeal.
OutKick did not hear back from the WIAA or the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction on initial comments made by K.M.K. and Brown in July.
The transgender athlete and the athlete’s family are not defendants.
The appeal comes as courts continue to fight over the future of Title IX and trans participation in school sports. Earlier this week, a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit against California officials over policies that allow trans athletes to compete according to their gender identity.
Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom speaks to members of the press in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Dec. 5, 2022. The High Court heard oral arguments in a case involving a suit filed by Lorie Smith, owner of 303 Creative, a website design company in Colorado, who refused to create websites for same-sex weddings despite a state anti-discrimination law. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The judge concluded that the federal government had not clearly notified California that excluding trans athletes from girls’ sports was a condition of receiving federal education funding. The Justice Department is considering an appeal.
The California case and the Washington appeal involve different legal questions, but both concern rules governing biological males in girls’ sports. ADF argues that the Washington case presents a more immediate safety concern because it involves a teenage athlete who allegedly suffered an invasive incident during a girls’ wrestling match and could face a similar matchup again.
Without emergency intervention before wrestling season begins, Brown and ADF say K.M.K. will be forced to choose between risking another matchup against a biological male and losing another season of the sport she has practiced since childhood.
Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela
