AG Bondi Says Feds Are Looking Into Bow High School ‘XX’ Wristband Case

This article is republished courtesy of New Hampshire Journal

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Tuesday night her department is looking into the Bow High School free speech case in the wake of Monday’s controversial ruling by a federal judge.

United States District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe ruled Bow High School has the right to ban parents from wearing pink XX wristbands to girls’ soccer games to show their opposition to allowing biological males to compete against females. The judge said the protests weren’t protected speech, and he accused the parents of “harassing” individual trans-identifying athletes.

The Trump administration has issued executive orders instructing schools to protect women’s sports and spaces from biological males, and Bondi is clearly not happy with the judge’s decision. 

“I have asked my Civil Rights Division to examine this matter,” Bondi posted on Twitter/X. ”This DOJ stands with women and their supportive parents.”

Bondi’s tweet was in response to a post from women’s sports activist Riley Gaines, who was commenting on NHJournal’s coverage of the Bow High School case.

“A federal judge just ruled that two fathers can’t wear pink wristbands that say ‘XX’ to silently protest male inclusion in women’s sports,” Gaines tweeted, with a link to the NHJournal article. “The judge said the female chromosomes, XX, are a ‘demeaning and harassing assertion.'”

The protesters are being represented in court by the Institute for Free Speech whose attorney, Del Kolde, responded to Bondi on social media.

“Thank you for looking at this matter. The behavior of Bow School District officials deserves scrutiny. In the meantime, we will continue the legal fight!”

New Hampshire attorney Richard Lehmann is working with the IFS on this case. He said the attorney general’s post is a hopeful sign.

“The fact that the United States Attorney General has commented publicly about the decision gives me a lot of hope that the rights of our clients will ultimately be vindicated.”

Last September, two parents of Bow High School girls’ soccer players, Kyle Fellers and Anthony “Andy” Foote, wore the pink wristbands to the game when the team faced off against a girls’ team with a male player. Other people at the game wore the wristbands, too.

The school district temporarily banned Fellers and Foote from school events, slapping them with police-enforced “No Trespass” orders. Joined by Nicole Foote and Eldon Rash, they filed a lawsuit alleging that school officials violated their First Amendment rights by banning them from school grounds and events for wearing the pink wristbands as a form of silent protest.

 The lawsuit named Superintendent of Schools Marcy Kelley, Principal Matt Fisk, and Athletic Director Mike Desilets, as well as Bow Police Lieutenant Phil Lamy and soccer referee Steve Rossetti.

Both Fellers and Foote were guests on Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox News Tuesday night. Asked by the host why the girls played in a game against a male rather than mount a protest, Fellers explained the situation the players faced.

“My daughter has been playing soccer since she was three. The Bow team is a varsity team; they are a very competitive team; they went to the state finals,” Fellers said. “We had school officials who claimed that, if there was a protest, they could potentially forfeit the game, and that would prevent them from going to the playoffs.”