6 minSociety
Colorado school official warned of trans volleyball fallout before district letter
Internal emails show a Dakota Ridge High School athletic director predicted the backlash over a transgender athlete's junior varsity volleyball spot weeks before the Jefferson County district issued a public statement.
An internal email from a Colorado high school athletic director shows that district leaders were warned about the backlash over a transgender athlete's place on a girls' volleyball team well before the district publicly addressed it. Dakota Ridge High School Athletic Director Jeff Legault wrote in an urgent October 6 email to district leadership that he had heard meetings were held weeks earlier to plan for this scenario, and that it was "unfolding exactly the way it was predicted." The emails were provided to OutKick and contradict the official account given by Jefferson County Public Schools, Colorado's second-largest school district.
The dispute centers on the girls' junior varsity volleyball team, where a transgender athlete secured a spot while dozens of female students were cut. During fall tryouts at Dakota Ridge, coaches cut upwards of 35 girls from the program, including juniors who had earned places during their freshman and sophomore seasons. Concerned parents argued that the school had compromised legal protections designed to preserve athletic opportunities for girls. Once the season began, the focus shifted to privacy in the girls' locker room.
The first documented warning came on Friday, October 2, when a parent emailed Legault and head coach Matthew Zeman to say players were discussing the situation among themselves. The parent wrote that several families felt their daughters' privacy rights were being set aside to protect the confidentiality of the transgender player. Legault forwarded the complaint up the chain of command, cautioning district officials that this email was only the beginning.
The internal emails show the district initially tried to keep its responses brief. District Compliance Officer Emily Sloan advised Legault to send a short, polite reply thanking the parent for their perspective, and, if the parent had a child on the team, to add a single sentence stating that all students can request accommodations in the locker room. The district's communications director agreed, choosing to treat broader concerns about fairness as individual requests for private changing spaces. Officials also advised staff to cite student privacy laws rather than address the dispute publicly.
That approach faltered within days. By the morning of Tuesday, October 6, Legault sent an urgent email to the district's executive team pointing to the gap between internal planning and execution. He reminded leaders that they had met weeks earlier to prepare for this outcome, yet the coaching staff had never received the promised talking points. He described office assistants and teachers fielding angry parent calls, while volleyball coaches were trying to prepare for league playoffs and answer teenagers' questions about federal equality laws. The offer of separate changing spaces, he indicated, was failing to satisfy players or parents.
Legault also reported that some student-athletes were questioning whether to play sports at all, and that several had already decided not to try out for the upcoming women's basketball season. He asked for a written response for the volleyball community the same day, warning that waiting for an afternoon meeting was inadequate because players would be using the locker rooms for a game that night. He wrote that the school administration and coaching staff were "taking the blame" while the district remained silent.
On October 7, the district sent an official letter to Dakota Ridge volleyball families. The statement pointed to state anti-discrimination policies intended to ensure that all students have "equal access to educational programs, facilities, and district-sanctioned activities" regardless of gender identity or expression. It formalized the separate-changing-space approach, asking female athletes to request alternatives if they wanted more privacy, and cited federal privacy rules to avoid discussing the specific student involved. The letter also asked families to avoid public speculation and social media discussion. The letter did not mention the roster cuts or missed athletic opportunities for female players.
The district described the situation in its letter to parents as an "unfamiliar circumstance." The internal records, however, show administrators had anticipated both the locker room privacy concerns and parent anger over cut players before those issues surfaced. National attention followed after parents took their concerns to the media, and a formal complaint alleged that high school players faced threats of benching from their coach if they discussed the transgender athlete's participation.
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