J425: 13 Girls Filed Safety Complaints on Trans Teammate Accused of SA, They Were Ignored. Now the Feds are Investigating Puyallup SD
Principal initially removed male from girls' space, but accused sex offender was back inside girls' locker room after one day...Male set to wrestle more girls at State on Tues, unless WIAA acts.
Two former school administrators who spoke to J425 for this story suggested that the district’s handling of the case may meet the legal standard of “deliberate indifference” under Title IX. This legal concept applies when an institution’s response to known harassment is “clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances”.
PUYALLUP, WA — As many as thirteen female Emerald Ridge High School (ERHS) wrestlers – the teammates of the biological male competitor under criminal investigation for allegedly sexually assaulting a girl during a December, 2025 wrestling match – lodged official safety complaints regarding the wrestler in question with ERHS administration, prior to this story breaking, J425 can report.
In response to the safety concerns, the school responded with gender theory handouts, including a sketch of a genderless stick figure surrounded by gender theory language.
Because the girls’ complaint centered on the fact that a male accused of sexually assaulting a female wrestler was allowed to access girls’ private spaces while under criminal investigation, the ERHS girls felt their concerns were not taken seriously.
This lack of action was compounded by the fact that when four wrestlers first spoke to the ERHS principal about concerns of sharing a locker room with the wrestler under investigation for sexual assault, the principal initially responded with concern for the girls’ safety and said he’d find a separate changing room for the transgender competitors, emailing parents about what seemed like an ideal solution.
Good afternoon,
We have spoken to the two girls in question.
They have agreed to utilize a different changing space for their practices. The goal is for this change to take place starting tomorrow, but it is possible it could take an extra day as we work through the details on our end. If there is a change in this plan for any reason, we can work with and any other girls who express concerns, on options moving forward.
Ed Crow,
Emerald Ridge High School
Principal
However, the male wrestler, under criminal investigation by the Pierce County Sheriff for sexual assault, returned to the girls locker room after just one day away.
Someone above the principal had evidently decided that a boy accused of sexually assaulting a female wrestler had a right to access the space where girls change and shower, and his right trumped the concerns of the 13 girls.
That said, the fact that the principal’s initial response was in line with common sense: listen to the girls’ complaint, find a separate changing area for the male accused of sexually assaulting a girl; the fact that the district reversed course after 24 hours provides a specific area for investigators to hone in on, and given the fact that after the male returned to the girls locker room, the 13 wrestlers who again complained to building administrators were this time met with politicized handouts written by gender theorists, one can surmise that the reasons for inserting the male back amidst the females was ideological in nature, and devoid of any care for the safety of the girls involved.
To be direct: how can Puyallup argue that the safety interests of the 13 teammates who complained were prioritized by returning the accused male into the girls’ locker room after one day?
They can’t.
All they can do is explain why it was more important to allow a male accused of sexually assaulting a female to access the girls locker room than it was to protect the safety of the girls’ inside said locker room.
Feds Open Title IX Investigation into Puyallup School District
Given this set of facts, it’s not surprising that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened a formal investigation into the Puyallup School District regarding allegations that the district failed to protect a female student from sexual assault by a biological male competitor and subsequently ignored her report for nearly two months.
The federal probe follows a J425 investigative report that detailed a 54-day gap between the time the student reported the assault
