Camas High girls walked off a Washington cross-country race rather than face a male athlete who switched from the boys team, parents say girls deserve fair competition.
On Oct. 13, Camas High School runner Holly Burns and about a dozen teammates refused to race. When the girls’ cross-country event started at 4 p.m., half the field took off. Burns and the rest walked past the starting line and into the tree line at the Underwriters Lab campus meet against Battle Ground.
The athlete at the center of the dispute had opened the season on the boys’ team. By mid-September, that runner was entered in girls’ races under Washington rules that have allowed participation based on gender identity since 2007. Parents Kevin and Sarah Burns say the walk-off was about fairness, not politics theater, and they backed their daughter every step.
OutKick spoke with the Burnses about how the protest took shape and what comes next for girls’ sports in the state.
Holly first wanted to avoid making waves. Her parents did not push her. They told her they would support whatever call she made.
"She wanted to kind of play it safe, so we, we weren't going to push it. We just kind of let her kind of feel it out. We told her that. We supported her whichever decision she tries to make,"
Kevin Burns said. Then the picture changed. Teammates talked. The team wanted to do something. The family fell in behind that choice.
"The more I heard about her friends wanting to do something, the more I heard about her team wanting to do something, we definitely were in support of that,"
he said. "We told her, do what you think is best."
The New York Post reported that roughly half of the 24 Camas girls in the race refused to run and walked into the tree line after the start, forfeiting the competition. The switch from the boys’ category was allowed under Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rules.
The competition history is not complicated. On Sept. 5, the athlete finished 76th in a boys’ junior varsity race at the Ultimook meet in Oregon. Ten days later, on Sept. 15, that same runner was competing in the girls’ race at a Camas meet involving Skyview. By the Oct. 13 dual, the athlete had already raced several times on the girls’ side.
Breitbart reported the runner ranked 76th in boys’ JV yet took first place after moving into the girls’ race, and that school officials followed state education rules on transgender athletes in place since 2007.
Kevin Burns put the fairness problem in plain terms.
"I don’t see how it’s OK to discriminate against my daughter and the daughters of everyone else that is trying to fairly compete,"
he said. The parents say the athlete has every right to run with the boys, the same category used at the start of the season. What is not fair, they argue, is erasing the work girls put in all summer.
"Their child has every right to participate in the boys athletics, just like they did at the beginning of the season, but it’s not fair to the girls,"
the Burnses said. "Some of these girls work really hard to compete. It’s most of what they do all summer long. It means a lot to them." Then came the harder line: "Then that’s devastating to all the hard work. It erases everything they’ve done."
Parents did not stay home. They showed up with signs. Security told them signs were not allowed at the event. Kevin Burns questioned whether that order was lawful and whether the campus counted as public or private property.
"They said that we’re not allowed to hold up signs at this event today,"
he said. "I questioned them if that was constitutionally legal, if we could express ourselves by just holding a sign. And we kind of went back and forth about public versus private property. And in the end, it didn’t seem like they really had a grasp on what they could tell us to do or not."
He held the sign anyway. Security followed him, pressed him, and told him to leave. He refused.
"So I just went ahead and held up my sign, and they had several security guards following me and pestering me and telling me that I would have to leave. And I just said, no, I’m not going to leave."
Sarah Burns faced a different confrontation. A woman who identified herself as a psychiatric nurse approached and attacked her for the sign.
"I had a lady that came up to me and said she was a psychiatric nurse and that I was a disgusting human for holding up this sign and that I was doing psychological damage to these children,"
Sarah said. Her reply was steady: "I told her that one day I’m gonna have to stand before my Lord and Savior and I’m gonna feel good about this."
She also described the shock of finding the dispute on their own small team.
"You hear about it, but you just never think it’s going to be on your kid’s small cross-country team,"
she said.
Camas School District has said it follows Washington law and WIAA eligibility rules. State Superintendent Chris Reykdal has defended the state’s approach. He said Washington has allowed students to participate in athletics consistent with their gender identity since 2007 and will keep enforcing those laws unless Congress or the federal courts change the requirements.
That stance now sits under federal heat. On Feb. 5, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to protect female athletic opportunities and to prioritize Title IX enforcement against federally funded institutions that force female athletes to compete against males in women’s categories. In April 2025, federal officials opened an investigation into Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Voters get a direct say on Nov. 3. Initiative 638 would prohibit students defined as biologically male from competing in certain female-only interschool athletic competitions. It would also require students seeking entry into those competitions to provide verification of biological sex from a healthcare provider. If approved, the measure would take effect 30 days after the election. The state cross-country championships are set for Nov. 7. Camas lists its next championship meet for Oct. 21 at Lewisville Regional Park.
A separate dispute is already at the U.S. Supreme Court. High school wrestler K.M.K. and mother Stephanie Brown sought emergency relief, including notice and a chance to decline competition against male athletes without penalties. The WIAA opposed the application in a filing, arguing the requested relief would conflict with state law and compromise other students’ privacy. Responses appeared on the docket the same week as the Camas meet. No ruling had issued at the time of the reporting.
The Burnses say they respect the girls who chose to race. They do not yet know whether sitting out cost Holly a chance she had worked toward. Her goal this season was simple: have fun, compete, and do her best. They also say standing up carries a price, and that is the point.
"But there’s cost to everything when you stand up for what you believe is right, I think. If there wasn’t, then you’re not really standing up for anything,"
they said. They had not spoken with the athlete or the athlete’s family. They still frame the issue as one of separate categories, not personal hatred. "I think we can respect each other outside of the controversy."
Their larger warning is blunt. "Women’s spaces will be erased." Their counsel to other parents is just as direct: "Don’t be afraid." "Stand up for girls’ rights." "Girls need their own space. They need their sports. They need their athletics."
Kevin Burns said the family has already made contacts and may organize a larger protest the next time. Asked whether they will keep coming, he answered without hesitation: "Definitely. Yeah, we will."
OutKick reached out to Camas, the WIAA, the Washington superintendent’s office, and Battle Ground for comment. The district’s public position remains that it follows state law and association rules. That is the same framework that moved a runner from 76th in a boys’ JV race into the girls’ field in a matter of days, and the same framework that left Camas girls choosing between a forfeit and a race they no longer saw as fair.
When schools and state officials treat sex-based categories as optional, girls pay first. Parents who refuse to clap for that bargain are not the problem.
