Brace yourself for a story that cuts right to the heart of the culture wars in West Virginia high schools.
Two students, Adaleia Cross and Emmy Salerno, have accused a transgender athlete—a minor and plaintiff in a looming U.S. Supreme Court case—of sexual harassment and intimidation, igniting a firestorm over a state law barring biological males from girls’ sports, which has been stalled in courts since 2021, as Fox News reports.
Let’s rewind to 2021, when this transgender athlete, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit to compete on girls’ sports teams in West Virginia, successfully blocking the state’s restrictive policy.
Fast forward to the 2022-23 school year, when Adaleia Cross, then an eighth-grader at Bridgeport Middle School, alleges she endured sexually harassing remarks from the transgender athlete in the girls’ locker room.
Cross claims the comments were so disturbing that she quit the track team multiple times—first in middle school, then again as a high school sophomore—to avoid sharing spaces with the athlete.
Her family reported the issue to the school, but they say no action was taken, leaving them in the dark about any investigation. It's a silence that speaks volumes about institutional priorities in today’s progressive-leaning education system.
Meanwhile, Emmy Salerno, a former Lincoln Middle School track runner, alleges a different kind of pressure when she and four other girls refused to compete against the transgender athlete in a shot put event on April 18, 2024.
Salerno claims the athlete responded with intimidating stares at public events and even followed her at a basketball game, raising fears of a possible confrontation.
“At the basketball game when he just followed me everywhere, I kind of felt like, ‘Is he gonna try to fight me?’” Salerno told Fox News Digital, a chilling account that underscores the real anxiety some students feel in these contentious situations.
Competitively, Cross says she was pushed out of top spots in shot put and discus during her eighth-grade year by the transgender athlete, adding a layer of frustration to an already tense situation.
Now a junior, Cross hasn’t played sports for over two years and even left her school’s theater group to avoid the athlete. It's a decision that highlights the personal toll of policies that prioritize inclusion over individual comfort.
“It makes me feel, kind of, out of place,” Cross told Fox News Digital, a quiet but powerful statement on how forced coexistence can alienate students who just want to feel safe in their own spaces.
The broader legal fight is no less heated, with the Supreme Court set to hear oral arguments on January 13, 2026, after lower courts upheld the block on West Virginia’s law, citing the transgender athlete’s long-standing gender identity and medical history.
Over 130 congressional Democrats have thrown their weight behind the athlete via an amicus brief, a move that’s hardly surprising given the left’s relentless push for progressive gender policies. Though it’s telling that some heavyweights like Chuck Schumer stayed on the sidelines.
Representing Cross and the state, Alliance Defending Freedom argues for fairness and safety in girls’ sports, while the ACLU insists its client’s rights under Title IX must be protected. It's a classic clash of values that’s now landed at the nation’s highest court, where the outcome could reshape school sports nationwide.
