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EXCLUSIVE: Thaw West Virginia high school students and their families have come forward with alleged details about their experience with a local transgender athlete who is a plaintiff in a lawsuit that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this month.
The trans athlete’s lawsuit originally sought to ensure that the athlete, a biological male, could compete on middle and high school girls’ sports teams in West Virginia. The trans athlete is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and more than 130 congressional Democrats have signed an amicus brief in support of the trans athlete for the Supreme Court challenge.
Pakinomist Digital is not releasing the name of the trans athlete because the person is a minor.
Bridgeport High School female student Adaleia Cross, who is a former athletic teammate of the trans athlete when the two were at Bridgeport Middle School, alleges that the trans athlete made sexually harassing comments to her in the girls’ locker room.
Cross, who is a year older than the trans athlete, said she left the athlete at Bridgeport High School last year as a sophomore to avoid sharing a locker room with the trans athlete again when that athlete reached high school.
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West Virginia teen Adaleia Cross said she ultimately quit the track and field team at Bridgeport High School last year to avoid sharing a locker room with a trans athlete. (Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)
Cross’ mother, Abby, told Pakinomist Digital what the trans athlete allegedly said to her daughter when they shared the girls’ locker room during the 2022-23 school year. Adaleia was in eighth grade and the trans athlete was in seventh.
“When Adaleia first told us, she told us [the trans athlete] told her and other girls — my d—,” Abby Cross alleged.”[The trans athlete] told her, came up and told her, ‘I’m going to stick my d— in your p—- and also in your a–.’ At different times [the trans athlete] said these things to her.”
The mother said the comments were reported to the school.
The ACLU has responded to the Cross family’s 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 unsubstantiated. We remain committed to defending the rights of all students under Title IX, including the right to a safe and inclusive learning environment free from harassment and discrimination,” read an ACLU statement provided to Pakinomist Digital.
Cross family attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) have responded to the ACLU’s statement.
“Our client has sworn under oath and under penalty of perjury in numerous cases about the events that took place between her and the male athlete. As a result of the situation, [Cross] had to step away from the sport she loved entirely and sacrifice a key element of her school experience to protect herself,” read an ADF statement provided to Pakinomist Digital.
ADF is also representing the state of West Virginia against the trans athlete in the case to be heard by the Supreme Court.
The ACLU has not responded to ADF’s response.
The Cross family said that when they reported the alleged harassment to the school, nothing was done to reprimand the trans athlete to their knowledge.
“They told me they were going to do a full investigation of what I told them,” Adaleia said. “And then, all of a sudden, it was like nothing else happened, it was done, and it seemed like they didn’t think anything of it 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 made it seem like, yeah, it’s done.”
Her father, Holden Cross said: “We received no response from the school after filing the report.”
Pakinomist 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 clarifying whether an investigation took place and, if so, why only the Cross family was not notified of the findings. These requests have not been granted.
Meanwhile, former Lincoln Middle School girls runner Emmy Salerno claims the trans athlete used “intimidation tactics” against her after Salerno refused to compete against the trans athlete during an event during the 2024 spring season.
Salerno’s protest came on April 18, 2024, when she and the trans athlete were in eighth grade. Salerno, along with four other girls, refused to compete in the girls’ shot put competition that day at a local meet. Salerno claims her team was disqualified from the following meet, and then began facing intimidating looks from the trans athlete at public events.
“After we stepped out, it was an immediate personality change. He wouldn’t talk to me. He would just stare at me and just stare down,” Salerno told Pakinomist Digital.
Salerno also provided Pakinomist Digital with a screenshot of a Snapchat post that appeared to be sent by the trans athlete, showing a photo of Salerno with a caption that reads, “Reminder she has more testosterone than me.”
Salerno said there was an incident where the trans athlete followed her while they were at a local basketball game and made intimidating looks, and Salerno was concerned that the trans athlete would try to “fight” her.
“At the basketball game, when he was just following me everywhere, I was like, ‘Is he going to try to fight me?'” Salerno said. “‘Is he going to try to sneak up behind me and hit me?’
Salerno and her father say they believe the stares, following patterns and social media posts were “intimidation tactics” and there has been “ongoing discomfort” as a result of the situation.
“I always tried to avoid him everywhere I went,” Salerno added.
The ACLU has not responded to Pakinomist Digital’s request for a response to Salerno’s allegations.
Salerno said she avoided competing against the trans athlete the following season, but instead of protesting publicly, she simply told her coach not to include her in the lineup for the meets against the trans athlete to avoid punishment to the team.
Salerno claims she has also heard other girls in the community talk about allegations of sexual harassment by Cross against the trans athlete. Salerno said she herself has never been in a locker room or bathroom with the trans athlete.
“Around the track season, it gets talked about more,” Salerno said of the sexual harassment allegations. “I heard through my school, people were talking about it.”
Adaleia Cross did not know how to divide the alleged sexual harassment
“I was told he was a girl and that was what was normal. So I tried not to think about it for a while. I just knew I was uncomfortable but I just tried to push it out of my mind because I thought I had to deal with it,” Cross claimed. “I felt like I couldn’t talk about it because I was told it was normal, I didn’t know how to process my feelings about it.”
As time went on and Adaleia had conversations with her parents about it, the gravity of the events really began to hit her.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is not okay,’ and I got upset again and it eventually turned into extreme anger,” she said, adding that the experience has affected her in a “permanent way.”
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Competitively, Cross also saw the trans athlete displace her from the school’s top three in her shot put and discus by the team when she was in eighth grade and the trans athlete was in seventh grade.
“I had gone from being top three to suddenly seeing him move up the ranks very quickly… I saw it all taken away from me very quickly.” Adaleia Cross said. “I can’t do anything about it.”
Adaleia left the track and field team for the rest of her time in middle school. When she entered high school, she competed again, but only for her freshman year. When the trans athlete entered high school the following year, Cross left the team again.
Now, as a high school junior, Adaleia hasn’t played high school sports in more than two years.
“It makes me feel a little out of place,” she said. “I try to get my athleticism elsewhere, but it’s not the same as having a team sport.”
Holden Cross said the lack of sports for her daughter has been “pretty upsetting.”
“For her to be put in that situation, and understandably not wanting to continue to be forced to be in that situation, it’s been quite upsetting. We all know what team sports do for kids and things like that and how that has a positive effect,” he said. “She’s really been put in a position where she doesn’t feel safe and comfortable competing on a team.”
Adaleia said she also ended up leaving her school’s theater group because the trans athlete is part of that club as well. She added that the situation has caused her to lose friends in recent years.
How it got here
The trans athlete filed a lawsuit in July 2021, at the age of 11, successfully blocking West Virginia’s law banning biological males from competing in girls’ sports. The court’s ruling ensured that the trans athlete would be on the same team and in the same locker room as Adaleia and other girls at Bridgeport Middle School and now Bridgeport High School.
The judge in the 2021 decision, Southern District of West Virginia Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, was appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1995.
The judge’s son, Booth Goodwin, was appointed by former President Barack Obama to serve as United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia in 2010.
In April 2024, a federal appeals court upheld the blocking of West Virginia’s law, saying the law cannot legally be applied to a middle school-aged trans girl who has taken puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since the third grade.
But last July the Supreme Court agreed to review the case, and oral arguments are scheduled for January 13.
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The coalition of 130 congressional Democrats who signed the amicus brief in support of the trans athlete includes nine senators and 121 House memberschaired by Congressional Equality Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Becca Balint, DV.t., Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, DN.M., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.
The list of signatories features prominent figures on the party’s left, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. The list also includes House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. The list does not include noted moderate Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y.
