Feds to investigate handling of Puyallup wrestler’s sexual assault complaint
The federal government is investigating the Puyallup School District for how it handled an alleged sexual assault.
According to a Feb. 13 news release from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the investigation stems from reports of a wrestler at a Puyallup high school being sexually assaulted during a match against a transgender opponent.
The News Tribune previously reported that the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office has opened an investigation into the match, which happened on Dec. 6, 2025. Carly Cappetto, spokesperson with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, previously told The News Tribune that a school resource officer assigned to the Puyallup School District did not learn of the incident until Jan. 30.
Cappetto said the officer then reviewed video from the match and spoke with the alleged victim and her mother on Feb. 3, before submitting the case to the Sheriff’s Office’s sexual assault unit.
In the news release, the U.S. Department of Education said it will be investigating if the school district violated Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports, allowing transgender athletes inside female locker rooms and “failing to adequately respond to allegations of sexual assault.”
Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex-based discrimination from any program or activity that receives federal financial assistance.
The release also said the alleged violations “are ongoing and well known to school leaders,” with “at least a dozen female athletes complaining to administrators” about two transgender athletes being in the girls’ locker room.
The News Tribune reached out Friday morning to Sarah Gillispie, spokesperson for the Puyallup School District for comment about the investigation and the allegation that a dozen female athletes came forward with concerns. Gillispie was not immediately available.
Gillispie previously declined to share details or discuss specifics about the incident with The News Tribune, saying the matter is under investigation.
“What we can say is that student safety is a top priority and that all reports involving student safety are taken seriously,” Gillispie wrote in an email to The News Tribune on Tuesday.
What happened at the December wrestling match?
Commentator Brandi Kruse released an interview with the alleged victim on Monday, who is a 16-year-old girl at Rogers High School. In a report on Kruse’s “unDivided” website, the girl said her opponent – who attends a school in the Puyallup School District – got on top of her during the match and pressed her fingers into her vagina.
Kruse published a 17-second video clip, which the 16-year-old’s mother recorded, that includes the moment in the match the girl said she was violated. The Rogers student appears startled and uncomfortable — judging from facial reactions she makes in the direction of her mother — when her opponent’s left arm goes between her legs. It remains there for about seven seconds as the two continue wrestling. The alleged hand contact can’t be seen because it’s obstructed from the camera’s view by the wrestlers.
The News Tribune reached out to the alleged victim and her mother earlier this week but did not receive a response. The News Tribune is not naming the teen – even though her identity is revealed in Kruse’s story – because she is a minor and an alleged victim of a sex crime.
The News Tribune also couldn’t reach the family of the wrestler accused of sexual assault and isn’t naming her because she is a minor and has not been charged with a crime.
The Rogers student notified her coach about the incident, and her mother emailed coaches two days after the match, according to the report on unDivided. One coach responded on Dec. 8 and indicated they would look into it but never followed up, and the school didn’t notify law enforcement until after Kruse reached out to the district for comment late last month, the report alleged.
In her interview with unDivided, the alleged victim said she did not know her opponent was transgender until after the match and would have reported her regardless.
The News Tribune asked Cappetto on Monday where the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office investigation stands. Cappetto, who noted the alleged assault couldn’t be seen on video, said the investigation remained active and there was still much to do.
Reactions
The area’s three Republican state lawmakers weighed in on Wednesday, noting that school personnel have a legal responsibility to immediately report suspected child abuse or neglect to the state. The joint statement came from Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup; Rep. Cyndy Jacobsen, R-Puyallup; and Rep. Michael Keaton, R-South Hill.
“In light of these allegations, the school district must be completely open and accountable for anything that occurred and hold accountable anyone who intentionally failed to act or who covered up any allegations,” the lawmakers said.
Each lawmaker also expressed support in their statement for “prohibiting biological male students from competing with and against female students.”
Katy Payne, a spokesperson for the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, told The News Tribune on Wednesday that the office understood the matter was with law enforcement and hoped it would soon be resolved.
“Any student who feels that they were assaulted in a school-sanctioned activity should feel safe to come forward, and school districts are required to have procedures in place for responding to and taking action on these allegations,” Payne said.
Other federal investigations
Puyallup is the second Pierce County school district to face a federal investigation for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports.
On Jan. 14, The News Tribune reported that the U.S. Department of Education would be investigating Tacoma Public Schools for its policies that “discriminate on the basis of sex by permitting students to participate in sports based on their ‘gender identity,’ not biological sex.”
These investigations are happening one year after President Donald Trump issued an executive order that banned transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports. Trump’s order stated that educational institutions that include trans athletes in women’s sports prevent women from having an “equal opportunity” to participate in sports. The order stated that the federal government could rescind funds from educational programs that do so.
At the time of the Jan. 14 release, the U.S. Department of Education was investigating 18 educational entities across the country, including Tacoma and three other school districts in Washington state: Cheney Public Schools, Sultan School District and Vancouver Public Schools.
The News Tribune reached out to the department Friday morning to ask how many educational entities they are investigating now, but did not get an immediate response.
News Tribune archives contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 11:13 AM.
