A 14-year-old Arizona eighth-grader was forcibly removed from boys’ basketball tryouts after school district officials refused to recognize him as a boy, citing an error on his original birth certificate.
Laker Jackson attended Eastmark High School, a seventh- through twelfth-grade campus in Mesa, Arizona, where he trained for a year to make the basketball team. However, district authorities refused to treat the cisgender teenager as a boy because the original gender mark on his birth certificate used during registration listed it as female.
The mix-up dates back 14 years, when hospital staff mistakenly listed Laker as female on his birth certificate. His parents, who have six children, say they never realized the mistake until enrolling him at Eastmark last year.
“I gave [a school administrator] When they look at the birth certificate, they say, “Did you know it says female?” ‘I was like, ‘Oh, no,'” Laker’s mother, Becky Jackson, recalled in an interview with the Phoenix-based ABC affiliate. KNXV. “I thought, ‘What? Oh, that’s so funny.'” So I go home and everyone’s laughing. ”
The Jackson family did not think this mistake would cause problems for their son, and correcting the mistake was not a top priority. They just put the birth certificate in a drawer and moved on.
But that lack of urgency is now causing problems for Laker at school. Last spring, staff began treating Laker as a woman, removing him from all-boys gym classes and requiring him to use a separate bathroom, even though his parents insisted he was a cisgender boy.
Over the summer, the Jacksons moved to correct Laker’s birth certificate, but the process proved complicated, requiring an affidavit and a notarized letter from a doctor confirming his gender. For cases involving name changes not requested by Laker, the applicant would also need to obtain a court order.
“It’s not a quick fix,” Becky Jackson told KNXV.
Eventually, the family submitted an amended birth certificate to district authorities, along with a doctor’s note and test results proving Laker was biologically male. But administrators said that’s not enough, citing rules that define a student’s gender only by the gender marker on their original birth certificate. The policy also determines athletic eligibility and limits students to teams that match the gender assigned at birth as listed on the original birth certificate.
The conflict came to a head when Laker was publicly ejected from this year’s men’s basketball tryouts after more than a year of training.
“They sent the Eastmark High School athletic director to physically remove Laker from the basketball tryouts in front of all of his friends and in front of his coaches,” Becky Jackson said.
The Lakers have been the subject of ridicule and gossip since the incident, and said friends on the basketball team told them they were “talking about it throughout tryouts and the next day at tryouts because it was really confusing.” He added that because of an error on his birth certificate, his children now joke about him.
“I’m dragged into the principal’s office and I’m really confused because the principal says, ‘I want you to feel safe.'” But I… morning If you leave me with the boys, I’ll be comfortable,” Laker said.
Adding insult to injury, the school district is now pressuring the Jackson family to pay out-of-pocket for a chromosome test to “prove” Laker is male, without guaranteeing they will accept the results or treat their son according to his gender identity.
“[T]I might consider making a change once I get my chromosome test done,” Becky Jackson said. AZ familyexplained the district’s ambiguous response. “They didn’t say they would. They said they might.”
The family says chromosome testing could cost up to $1,500.
“So who’s going to pay for it?” Becky Jackson said.
in a statement to AZ familyQueen Creek Unified School District defended its policy, saying it is “committed to fairness, integrity, and equal opportunity in all athletic programs for both men and women.”
“In this particular case, the student has been enrolled in QCUSD since elementary school and has been registered as biologically female throughout her time in our district. The day before basketball tryouts, the parent submitted a new birth certificate and a doctor’s note indicating a change of gender. Our school relies on the student’s original birth certificate at the time of birth to determine athletic eligibility.”
“The student’s parents have contacted our district and asked for our assistance in finding a solution. We have advised the parents that documentation, such as chromosome analysis, may be considered to support or confirm eligibility in accordance with policy.”
According to KNXV, there has never been an incident in which a school has required a family to undergo genetic testing to determine whether they are eligible to compete in sports at the middle school level.
The Jacksons have said they intend to let Laker try out for the girls team if the district leaves no other options, but contend that decision is squarely up to administrators.
“I feel like this is setting a precedent for both people who support transgender people and people who have issues with transgender people, because the precedent they’re setting is that at the end of the day, no matter what documents or information you show us or give us, you force biological boys to play with girls,” Becky Jackson, an advocate for transgender children, told KNXV.
Indeed, the district’s stubborn adherence to a fiat approach to birth certificates, which appears to be motivated by a desire to prevent transgender athletes from competing on teams that do not match their assigned gender at birth, is what has prevented the situation from being resolved.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
