Adaleia Cross says SCOTUS ruling brought peace after years of fighting

For Adaleia Cross, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the West Virginia women’s sports case wasn’t just a legal victory.

It was something personal.

Cross, a student at Bridgeport High School in West Virginia, said the ruling gave her a “sense of peace” after years of speaking out about the transgender athlete at the center of the case. Cross has alleged that the athlete made comments to her in the girls’ locker room that amounted to sexual harassment when they were both students at Bridgeport High School.

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Pak Gazette Digital is not naming the trans athlete because he is a minor.

“I definitely have a sense of peace about all of this,” Cross told Pak Gazette Digital after the ruling. “Even though I had to go through all that, and that doesn’t make up for what I had to go through, I know that other girls can be protected, like my sister and my friends who are still on the team.”

Cross also sent a message to the athlete following the ruling.

“Jesus Christ loves [the athlete] and has a place for [the athlete] if they want to be there,” he said.

Cross and her parents previously told Pak Gazette Digital that the alleged sexual harassment occurred in the girls’ locker room during the 2022-23 school year. Cross was in eighth grade and the trans athlete was in seventh.

“When Adaleia first told us, she told us that [the trans athlete] “He was telling her and other girls ‘my b*tch,'” Cross’s mother, Abby Cross, alleged in December.[The trans athlete] I was telling him, approaching him and saying: ‘I’m going to put my p— in your p—- and also in your a–‘. At different times [the trans athlete] “I was telling him these things.”

But Adaleia said Wednesday that the entire locker room changed after the athlete joined the women’s team.

“Many girls, after [the athlete] “They came into our locker room and started going to the bathroom,” Cross said. “They started changing in the cubicles, which wasn’t really normal.”

“You would have separated the children to try not to be close [the athlete]but it was still difficult because during the athletics competitions, you had to be present [the athlete]” he added. “The girls were just uncomfortable.”

“They didn’t want to be around [the athlete]”Cruz said.

Cross said the unrest even spread beyond his own team.

“I know other teams started canceling attendance at track meets so their girls wouldn’t have to put up with that,” Cross said. “It’s really sad to see all this happening.”

“Girls deserve to have that space,” she added. “And it’s just been taken away from me.”

The ACLU previously denied the allegations.

“Our client and her mother deny these allegations and the school district investigated the allegations reported to the school by AC and found them to be unfounded. We remain committed to upholding the rights of all students under Title IX, including the right to a safe and inclusive learning environment, free from harassment and discrimination,” reads an ACLU statement provided to Pak Gazette Digital.

But the Cross family’s attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) responded to the ACLU’s statement.

“Our client has sworn under oath and under penalty of perjury in numerous cases regarding the events that took place between her and the male athlete. As a result of the situation, [Cross] “He had to completely step away from the sport he loved and sacrifice a key element of his school experience to protect himself,” read an ADF statement provided to Pak Gazette Digital.

The Cross family said that when they reported the alleged harassment to the school, as far as they knew, nothing was done to reprimand the trans athlete.

“They told me they would do a full investigation into what I told them,” Adaleia said. “And then all of a sudden it was like nothing else was happening, it was already done, and it seemed like they didn’t think of anything because they didn’t talk to us about it at all, they just left it there and didn’t tell us anything else, so it just seemed like, well, it’s done.”

His father, Holden Cross, said: “We received no response from the school after submitting the report.”

Pak Gazette Digital made repeated requests to the ACLU and the Harrison County School District, which oversees Bridgeport Middle School and Bridgeport High School, seeking documentation related to the school’s investigation and clarification on whether an investigation occurred and, if so, why only the Cross family was not notified of the results. Those requests have not been met.

Pak Gazette Digital has since reached out to the ACLU and the Harrison County School District for a response to Adaleia Cross’ statements but did not receive a response.

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SCOTUS victory came at a price for Cross

The Supreme Court ruled June 30 that schools can base eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports on biological sex. The court overturned rulings against West Virginia and Idaho, whose laws restrict women’s and girls’ sports teams to biological women.

Despite the victory, Cross said joining the case came at a cost.

“The hardest part of this whole situation for me has been losing friends that I’ve had for years,” he said. “I’ve been friends with these kids since middle school, early elementary school, and watching us grow up and get into high school, they just don’t want anything to do with me.”

“The people I love don’t want to talk to me right now,” he added.

She said that during her sophomore year, she wore a T-shirt that said “Save Women’s Sports.” Cross said other students also wore the shirt because they were “furious about what was happening.”

Then, he said, he walked into the classroom.

“My teacher, who I had for two years, told me that she sees me as less of a person,” Cross said. “That was really scary for me.”

“I didn’t know what to say,” Cross said. “I just left. And my junior year, I had been moved out of my classroom.”

Cross said most of her high school has been supportive. But he said a small group has been loud enough to make daily life more difficult.

“My high school has been very supportive of me,” Cross said. “I know a lot of teachers and the administration support me. I know most of the kids support me.”

But, he said, “there is a very small population that doesn’t do it, and they are very explicit about it.”

“They are aggressive, there have been threats and there has been hate,” Cross said. “So while it’s like 80/20, it feels more like 50/50, which has been difficult.”

Along the way, Cross also had to witness the athlete win the women’s state championship in the shot put last May, just weeks before the Supreme Court ruling that later banned the athlete from competing against girls.

“It was extremely frustrating for me and because I know several other girls,” Cross said of the trans athlete who won the championship.

“All my friends who have been working to be at the top for years, they got taken away from first place, and then all the other places, um, behind that, and it’s just been very difficult. Even though I’m not competing, I know the frustrations that everyone else is having, and they don’t have a chance, and it’s not their fault, it’s a biological reality.”

And now, even though the athlete will not be returning to women’s sports, Cross said she will not be returning to sports either, as it has been too long since she last competed.

“As much as I would like to, I don’t plan on it. I’ll be a senior this year, and after not participating for two years, I won’t be anywhere close to comparing myself to the other girls because of the training they’ve had versus the training I haven’t had,” she said.

How did you overcome it?

Cross said he was 14 when he first had the opportunity to speak publicly about what he says happened. She said she was afraid.

“The first time I had the option to stand up, I was 14, I was terrified and I didn’t really want to do it,” Cross said. “I told God I would do it if He made it very clear to me, and He did. Since then, it has appeared before me.”

Cross said a Bible verse helped convince her to move forward.

“The next day, I picked up my phone and the verse of the day on the Bible app was Esther 4:14, which says, ‘Perhaps you were created for such a time as this,’ and I knew that’s what He wanted me to do,” Cross said.

She said the verse stayed with her throughout the case.

“Throughout the entire case, that verse has been prevalent in my life,” Cross said. “He has remained faithful.”

Cross said the case also changed the way he views his own school experience.

Bridgeport High School, he said, is built around sports and activities. Cross said he had to give up three extracurricular activities he loved because of the consequences.

“I definitely feel like I’ve missed a little bit of the camaraderie and friendship that comes from it,” Cross said. “I definitely miss it, but women and girls are worth protecting.”

Cross said she believes the national debate often leaves out the girls who are directly affected.

“I think the media likes to focus a lot on how transgender athletes feel about situations that happen,” Cross said. “What they should focus on is how biological women are affected.”

“These are their spaces and they are taking them away,” he added.

She said her frustration is not just with the athlete, but also with the adults she believes failed to protect her.

“It’s really frustrating for my school district, because I went to them with problems and I thought they would handle it and I thought they would protect me,” Cross said. “I know they confirmed it happened. I know several other kids confirmed it was happening to me and completely ignored it.”

“They tried to silence me,” he added. “They tried to silence my parents and that’s really frustrating, especially when I’m 14.”

Cross said the experience still weighs on her because she wonders how many other girls may be afraid to speak out.

“I just wanted to compete in sports,” Cross said. “It’s really hard to think, even now, about how many other kids they could be doing that to? How many other sexual abuse situations are happening and they’re being silenced? It’s really frustrating.”

Now, backed by the Supreme Court’s ruling, Cross said she hopes people will look beyond politics and listen to the girls who say they have been affected.

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“I urge people to think for themselves,” Cross said. “Really investigate the facts of the cases and what really happened to countless girls, and not let the media tell them what to think.”

“Really use your minds,” he added, “and look at what’s really happening.”