Puyallup high school student sues state over response to alleged sexual assault
A Puyallup wrestler who says she was sexually assaulted by a transgender athlete in December is suing state officials for how they handled the incident.
In a Tuesday news release, the Alliance Defending Freedom — a conservative, nonprofit legal advocacy organization — said the girl and her mother filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court because officials allegedly didn’t tell the alleged victim her opponent was transgender, then “waited 53 days to report the sexual assault to law enforcement, in violation of a mandatory 48-hour reporting law.”
The defendants in the case are Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, the Puyallup School District, Rogers High School, RHS principal Jason Smith and Emerald Ridge High School coach John Morrison.
The News Tribune is not naming the alleged victim — even though she is named in ADF’s news release and the complaint — because she is a minor and an alleged victim of a sex crime.
“A 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted because of political cowardice. Washington state officials insist on pushing gender ideology at all costs—even at the expense of girls’ safety and privacy,” Kate Anderson, senior counsel for ADF, said in the release. “Our client’s story is proof of the grave harms caused by lying about biology. This must end—otherwise, girls will continue getting hurt and violated. We are urging the court to require state officials to change their policy to ensure that girls’ privacy and safety are protected when they compete in the sports they love.”
The News Tribune reached out to the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, but did not receive an immediate response.
In a statement to The News Tribune on Tuesday, Sarah Gillispie, the spokesperson for the Puyallup School District, said officials there are reviewing the case.
“The district has not been formally served with the complaint,” Gillispie wrote in an email. “We are aware of the allegations referenced in your inquiry and are reviewing this matter; however, because this matter involves student privacy considerations and anticipated litigation, we are unable to comment further at this time.”
The News Tribune previously reported on the wrestling match, which happened on Dec. 6. The teenager said her opponent pressed her fingers into her vagina intentionally while on top of her.
The News Tribune is not naming the opponent because that person is a minor and has not been charged with a crime.
In the release, Anderson said the alleged victim’s mother “promptly reported the assault to school officials, who sat on the information for nearly two months.”
Carly Cappetto, spokesperson for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, previously told The News Tribune that a school resource officer didn’t learn of the incident until Jan. 30. The officer reviewed video from the match, followed up with the alleged victim and her mother on Feb. 3, and submitted the matter to the Sheriff’s Office’s sexual-assault unit.
On March 20, Cappetto told The News Tribune that PCSO had forwarded the case to the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office “for review and for potential charges.”
Later on March 20, Adam Faber — the spokesperson for the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office — told The News Tribune the office was reviewing the charges.
“This is an active case and it is under review,” Faber wrote. “Based on conversations with the detective and one of our [deputy prosecuting attorneys], I do expect more information to come in from PCSO on this incident. We don’t generally preview what potential charges might be, and I don’t have a timeline on when it will wrap up.”
On Tuesday, Faber said the office declined to pursue charges on Friday, June 6, because the possible charges would be too difficult to prove in court.
On Feb. 13, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would be investigating whether the Puyallup School District violated federal law 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.”
What happened at the December wrestling match?
Commentator Brandi Kruse released an interview with the alleged victim, now 16, on Feb. 19..
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.
In the complaint, the girl said she allowed her opponent to pin her so that the match could end.
“The male’s right forearm pressed against her in the crack between her butt cheeks, while his right hand groped her again forcefully in the pelvic region between her legs and toward the front of her pelvis,” the complaint says. “ [She] found this second touching deeply offensive and humiliating, especially as he was still wrestling her and pinning her down less than a minute after he had sexually assaulted her—all while she was no longer trying to win the match.”
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.
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, 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.
What happened after the match?
In the complaint, the alleged victim’s mother said she wrote a complaint to the school on Dec. 8, saying the victim had unknowingly wrestled with a transgender girl and had been assaulted.
Lucia Scott, the wrestling coach, allegedly reached out to the victim and her mother and said she hadn’t known her opponent was trans and that, if she had known, she wouldn’t have allowed the victim to wrestle her opponent. Later that day, she allegedly asked the victim’s mother for recording of the incident.
The girl didn’t participate in wrestling for almost a month, the complaint said, because of a leg injury. When she returned on Jan. 2, she allegedly learned no action had been taken.
“There had still been no action on K.M.K.’s reported assault or her report that she had been unknowingly directed to wrestle against a male,” the complaint says. “It was terrifying to realize that the coaches K.M.K. had trusted had so little regard for her safety.”
Washington state law requires schools to report incidents to law enforcement within 48 hours if they believe there has been abuse or neglect.
The girl left the wrestling team because of concerns for her safety, the complaint says.
The alleged victim said she saw a video from Kruse on Jan. 25 that said 13 girls had expressed discomfort with their school administrators over allowing transgender women into the locker rooms.
“The video said one of the [transgender] students was in the 190 lb. division on the girls wrestling team at [a different school],” the complaint said. “[She] realized this was likely the same male athlete she had wrestled.”
The complaint alleges the other school’s coach knew the girl’s opponent was trans, had seen the alleged assault happen and still allowed the opponent to participate in the girl’s wrestling team and be allowed in the locker rooms.
On Jan. 29, the girl met with the principal, Smith, who allegedly told her he had reported the incident to the other school’s athletic director. On Jan. 30, the complaint says, the principal called the girl’s mother and said he had no updates but that, “the school takes these things ‘very seriously.’” Later on Jan. 30, the district allegedly alerted the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
Around that time, the school district launched an investigation, the complaint says, but that investigation is ongoing.
In February, the transgender athlete dropped out of the state wrestling championship, which took place on Feb. 19 and 20, The News Tribune previously reported.
In late March, the alleged victim’s mother reached out to Gordon Brobbey, the district’s director of equity and student success, and said the victim would return to wrestling if she was not made to unknowingly wrestle against a transgender opponent.
“The District refused to change any policy, allow [her] to change teams, or even promise to give her mother notice whenever her daughter is matched against a male athlete so that she could forfeit the match. The District’s policies and actions thus excluded [her] from girls wrestling,” the complaint says.
The complaint alleges that OSPI has interpreted state law as requiring transgender women to be allowed to compete in girls sports. It says OSPI’s policy violates Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination from any program or activity that receives federal financial assistance.
The complaint also alleges that WIAA caused harm by requiring schools that participate in WIAA to allow transgender girls to participate in girls sports.
Pierce County declines to bring charges against the athlete
In a memo shared with The News Tribune on Tuesday, deputy prosecutor Lena Berberich-Eerebout said it would be too difficult to charge the transgender athlete with third-degree rape.
“The biggest barrier to charging this case is the case law concerning consent in athletic contests. As you are aware, Rape in the Third Degree requires not just proof that sexual intercourse occurred, but that it occurred without consent,” Berberich-Erebout wrote on Friday, June 6. “I have no doubt that the victim did not want [this] to occur, but unfortunately, that is not the definition of consent to which we are legally bound.”
In the memo, Berberich-Erebout said the referee spoke to investigators and said nothing jumped out at him at the match. When he watched the video, the referee allegedly said nothing about the suspect’s hand placement was “out of the ordinary.”
“It seemed as though the suspect was attempting to put the victim in a ‘half Nelson’ and appeared to be attempting to lift the victim’s leg to try to turn her to her back and that “[s]ometimes in the course of a match it just…you grab what you can grab...that’s something that happens almost every match,’” Berberich-Erebout wrote.
Berberich-Erebout also said the school’s athletic director, Peter Collins, claimed contact with the genitals and buttocks is common in wrestling.
“We will not be charging this case because we cannot prove Rape 3 at trial. This does not mean that I approve of this conduct, or that I have no sympathy for the victim. I reviewed all of the documentation provided, the interviews, the victim’s statement, and the videos of the event,” Berberich-Erebout wrote. “It is apparent this had a profound impact on the victim and I believe she will be disappointed by this decision, but we cannot charge a criminal case we cannot prove.”
Other actions against transgender athletes in girls sports
Let’s Go Washington is a conservative political group that is pushing a 2026 ballot initiative to ban transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports.
Let’s Go Washington’s two initiatives, including one focused on parental rights in education, have received pushback from a group composed of teachers, students, parents and residents. The group, Washington Families for Freedom, has called the sports measure “anti-trans” and expressed concern that it would put kids at risk, including exposure to possible abuse or being forcibly outed, The News Tribune previously reported.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would be investigating Tacoma Public Schools for alleged discrimination on the basis of sex, related to permitting transgender participation in sports, The News Tribune previously reported. The district was one of 18 educational entities in the United States announced as the subject of a Title IX probe at the time, according to the U.S. Department of Education. It followed a federal probe launched in May 2025 into Washington state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, in part, over transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ sports. In response, Reykdal called the investigation the latest shot in a “dangerous war” against transgender and gender-expansive people.
News Tribune archives contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 3:19 PM.
