The Tahoe Truckee Unified School District’s announcement on May 2 that it would be leaving the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) for the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) next school year sent shock waves through parents, students, and coaches. The decision was made quickly after TTUSD learned in early April that a recent policy change at the NIAA regarding transgender athletes put TTUSD in conflict with California law, which protects transgender students as part of anti-discrimination laws.

In other words, TTUSD is both physically and metaphorically caught between a red and blue state.

At a packed board meeting on May 7 attended by around 250 people, Superintendent Kerstin Kramer recognized that the email announcing the district’s change in interscholastic athletics affiliation caught everyone off guard.

“I do want to acknowledge that the announcement was sudden and unexpected,” she said. “There are feelings of anger, disappointment, and support for some. This was a difficult announcement for the community.”

This decision is especially impactful because a quite large percentage of TTUSD students play school sports. According to the district, 67% of North Tahoe High School students participate in at least one sport, and 59% at Truckee High; a good portion of students also participates in multiple sports. TTUSD has been affiliated with the NIAA since 1986, almost 40 years.

The NIAA’s April 2 decision to restrict student-athletes to play on teams that match their biological sex at birth impacts TTUSD in two ways. The first is that it violates California law, which protects gender identity and gender expression. The second was that the NIAA changed its physical evaluation form to reflect its new policy. This form, which has always required a physical and a doctor’s signature, now has boxes to be checked by a physician that say, “medically eligible for girls sports” or “medically eligible for boys sports,” as well as a line for the physician to identify the student’s “birth sex.” The form goes on to explain: “‘Male’ means a person belonging to the sex intended to produce the small reproductive cell; ‘Female’ means a person intended to produce the large reproductive cell.”

Kramer said that after conferring with Tahoe Forest Hospital, she learned that the hospital’s legal team reviewed the form and found that it violates HIPAA privacy protection laws. According to Kramer, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Evans told her that he directed his staff not to sign the form. Students cannot participate in school sports without it.

“If we continue in the NIAA we are required to use this form for eligibility of students, and we would be asking students to violate their privacy rights,” she explained. “That’s our conflict, and that’s why we are here.”

Kramer added that TTUSD asked the NIAA about a waiver, but the association stated there are no exceptions. The school district had to act fast since both NIAA and CIF schedules are already set for next school year.

“Once we saw this, we were worried,” she said. “You see how important athletics are. We need to have an athletic program next school year … We did not see another path forward. We needed to switch to CIF out of necessity to comply with California state law … The decision was fast because we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss out on an opportunity for next year’s sports.”

The district reached out to CIF, which agreed to fit all TTUSD sports into the schedule for the Sac-Joaquin Section, although the specific league has not yet been decided.

The move to CIF will impact TTUSD in many ways, but parents, students, and coaches expressed their concern about two main issues: safety traveling over Donner Summit in winter and the shift in soccer from a fall to winter sport. A petition urging the district to stay in the NIAA received almost 1,300 signatures in 24 hours.

“If it’s snowing out there, who’s going to be liable for those kids? If there’s an accident and we lose one of those students, who’s going to be liable for that?” said Cristina Martinez, whose son will try out for Truckee High JV football next year. “In 1981, they made that decision [to join the NIAA] for a big reason … How are we supposed to get to games in the winter? I’d rather drive 5 hours to Elko … than be stuck on 80 for 7, 8 hours.”

Truckee football, whose program was quite successful in the NIAA with 14 state championships, will be impacted by facing more competitive teams in the CIF.

However, the fate of soccer was the biggest topic of discussion in public comment. Even in her presentation, Kramer said “we need a miracle for soccer.” Changing soccer to a winter sport would mean that teams would not have outdoor practice facilities, would not be able to host home games, and would be in conflict with other popular winter sports such as basketball, Alpine skiing, snowboarding, and Nordic skiing. For multi-sport athletes, this would force them to make a difficult decision.

Abby Edwards, whose daughter is on the varsity soccer and snowboard teams at North Tahoe, said 90% of girls on the NTHS soccer teams also participate in winter sports like skiing or basketball.

“They will have to choose one sport over another,” Edwards told Moonshine Ink. “I only know a couple girls who will choose soccer … We have a really big soccer community here, other than skiing it’s the most popular sport … I am hurting for these girls.”

Another parent echoed her concerns.

“We all understand how detrimental moving soccer to winter is — it’s going to be catastrophic,” Amanda Conk, mother of a Truckee High soccer player, told the board. “The real tragedy is with kids who don’t play club soccer, they rely on the high school season to learn team sports. Transitioning to a winter sport will eliminate that. How can TTUSD not have realized this when they made the decision? I am disappointed.”

TTUSD only has until May 15 to give final notice of withdrawal to the NIAA.

“We are making a decision without the benefit of time to fully understand the impacts,” said TTUSD Board member Denyelle Nishimori, who suggested the district directly approach the California attorney general. “What if we could say, ‘Look, we can’t comply in 6 months. We might not be able to comply fully in a year. We have to build field houses. We have so much that we have to address with the logistics of potentially driving over the summit.’”

Board member Kirsten Livak argued that the district was unfairly being penalized for its geographical location of being sandwiched between two states with different views on transgender athletes, and that it needs to fight harder for its students.

“It’s ridiculous to expect us to comply in such a short period of time. We are the ones being punished because of where we live and that’s not fair,” she said. “It’s this incredibly huge, complicated dilemma. On one side we are saying that mental health is so important, yet this will destroy the soccer program or at least put it at risk — it’s going to hit really hard. We should not have to suffer because of where we live. We should not be discriminated against because of where we live. We should advocate for our community.”

Three other school districts in the same predicament, including Lake Tahoe Unified School District in South Lake Tahoe, have opted to remain in the NIAA. Moonshine Ink will explore this further in another story.

The board will meet again on May 14 to further discuss the issue.