#harrison county

According to Riestenberg, if a student opted out of participating in an event voluntarily, they wouldn’t be allowed to compete in that same event at the next meet. Importantly, that rule was never written down, nor given to the student athletes in writing.

Instead, Riestenberg testified that she tells the student athletes of her scratch rule at the beginning of the season. The two students testifying disputed that claim.

A lawyer with the Harrison County Board of Education claimed that the students’ free speech rights were not infringed upon by following the scratch rule. Multiple people testified that there were other forms of protesting the issue of transgender athletes in sports throughout the season.

Riestenberg, LMS Principal Lori Scott, and a student all testified that multiple students wore “SWS” shirts -- short for “save women’s sports” -- at meets and were not reprimanded. They only reason, the BOE’s lawyer argued, that the students were not allowed to participate in the next meet was because they violated their coach’s scratch rule.

In the end, Judge Bedell said that both sides made good points, but was going to grant the plaintiff’s preliminary injunction motion.

That means the students will be allowed to compete in their next (and final) two matches of the season, regardless of whether they protest by violating Coach Riestenberg’s scratch rule.

All parties agreed that should the scratch rule want to be enforced in the future, it would need to be in writing.

Riestenberg and Scott committed to making that happen for next season.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey issued the following response on Judge Bedell’s ruling.