The mom of a trans volleyball player called out California school officials after her daughter’s team lost a game before it even started. She said the school let people harass her child instead of protecting her.
Her daughter, AB Hernandez, plays for Jurupa Valley High School. She was supposed to face Riverside Poly High School on August 15, but the game didn’t happen.
Riverside Poly later put out a statement, saying, “We understand this is disappointing for our athletes, families and supporters, and we appreciate the community’s understanding.
“We remain committed to providing a safe, positive environment for all student-athletes throughout the season.”
Parents say the game was thrown because of Hernandez
Some parents told Fox Digital the real reason the game got scrapped was because Hernandez was on the roster. They also said it wasn’t the girls on the team who made that call.
Board member Amanda Vickers spoke to the outlet and said, “Tonight, the girls of Riverside Polly High School, they’re not going to end up like Payton McNabb.”
She was talking about a player who had permanent brain damage after being hit by a spike from a trans athlete back in 2022.
Families meet with the school board after the incident
After the game was canceled and Vickers’ comments made headlines, local parents showed up at a Riverside Unified School District board meeting on August 21.
Some stood by their kids for sitting the game out. Others spoke up against the district’s approach to gender and school sports, according to the New York Post.
The mom says her daughter is not to blame
AB’s mom, Nereyda, was at that meeting too. She told everyone her daughter was “not the problem.”
She also called out Vickers for her remarks to Fox News Digital, saying the board member had basically “entertained and welcomed harassment” toward her child.
“You are a board member. You have an oath to protect, to support all children, not just the ones that fit your ideas, your beliefs,” she told her.
Nereyda added, “My daughter is not the problem. The problem is coordinated external efforts often led by individuals that travel from district to district … to spread fear and put parents against each other using religion as a shield for discrimination. This has nothing to do with fairness in sports and everything to do with erasing transgender children.”
AB has been targeted before
This was not the first time AB had been singled out. Back in May, she was heckled by a group of about 30 adults at a track meet in Yorba Linda. Reports said even three school board members were in that crowd.
The yelling was so loud it caused a false start during one of the races.
AB spoke up about what happened, telling Capital and Main, “There’s nothing I can do about people’s actions, just focus on my own. I’m still a child, you’re an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person.”
Protests follow her at sporting events
According to the New York Post, AB has also dealt with protests at postseason meets. Female athletes and their families showed up to demonstrate against her competing.
Some wore “Save Girls Sports” shirts. Those shirts have even been compared to swastikas by school officials in a lawsuit.
Trump weighs in on California’s transgender policies
President Donald Trump also jumped into the conversation online.
On his Truth Social account, he posted, “Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” That message was part of his broader push against transgender rights.
In July, his administration sued the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation, saying the policy that lets trans athletes compete in girls’ sports went against federal anti-discrimination laws.
Trump pushes lawsuits and new directives
The lawsuit came even though Trump had already signed an order earlier in the year to cut federal funding from schools that let trans girls compete in female sports.
The directive said, “It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.
“It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
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When he signed it, Trump declared, “the war on women’s sports is over.”
