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For Adaleia Cross, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the West Virginia women’s sports case was not just a legal victory.
It was personal.
Cross, a Bridgeport High School student 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 the athlete made comments to her in the girls’ locker room that amounted to sexual harassment when both were students at Bridgeport Middle School.
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Fox News Digital is not naming the trans athlete because the athlete is a minor.
“I definitely have a sense of peace about all of it,” Cross told Fox News Digital after the ruling. “Although I had to go through all of that, and it 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 in the wake of the ruling.
“Jesus Christ loves [the athlete] and has a place for [the athlete] if they want to be there,” she said.
Cross and her parents previously told Fox News Digital 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] was telling her and other girls ‘s— my d—,’” Cross’s mother, Abby Cross alleged in December. “[The trans athlete] was saying to her, coming up and saying to her, ‘I’m going to stick my d— in your p—- and also in your a–.’ At different times [the trans athlete] was saying these things to her.”
But Adaleia said Wednesday that the entire locker room changed after the athlete joined the girls’ team.
“A lot of girls, after [the athlete] came into our locker room, started going to the bathroom,” Cross said. “They started changing in stalls, which was not really normal.”
“You would have kids separated to try to not be around [the athlete], but it was still hard because during track meets, you had to be around [the athlete],” she added. “Girls were just uncomfortable.”
“They didn’t want to be around [the athlete],” Cross said.
Cross said the discomfort even spread beyond her own team.
“I know other teams started canceling coming to track meets, so their girls didn’t have to put up with it,” Cross said. “It’s just really sad to see all that happening.”
“Girls deserve to have that space,” she added. “And it’s just been taken away.”
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 A.C. 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 Fox News Digital.
But the Cross family’s attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) then 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 Fox News Digital.
The Cross family said when they reported the alleged harassment to the school, nothing was done to reprimand the trans athlete, to their knowledge.
“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 done, and it seemed like they thought nothing 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 seemed like, yup it’s done.”
Her father, Holden Cross said, “We received no response from the school after filing the report.”
Fox News 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.
Fox News Digital has since reached back out to the ACLU and the Harrison County School District for a response to Adaleia Cross’s statements, but has not received a response.
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The SCOTUS win came with a price for Cross
The Supreme Court ruled on June 30 that schools may base eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports on biological sex. The court reversed rulings against West Virginia and Idaho, whose laws restrict girls’ and women’s sports teams to biological females.
Despite the victory, Cross said joining the case came with a cost.
“The hardest part of the whole situation for me has been losing friends that I’ve had for years,” she said. “I’ve been friends with these kids since middle school, early elementary school, and to watch as we get older, and we get into high school, they just want nothing to do with me.”
“It’s people I love don’t want to talk to me now,” she added.
She said that during her sophomore year, she wore a shirt that said “Save women’s sports.” Cross said other students wore the shirt too, because they were “enraged over what was happening.”
Then, she said, she walked into her homeroom.
“My homeroom teacher, who I’d 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 kind of left. And by my junior year, I had been moved from my homeroom.”
Cross said most of her high school has supported her. But she said a small group has been loud enough to make daily life harder.
“My high school has been very supportive,” Cross said. “A lot of teachers, the administration, I know they support me. Most of the kids, I know that they support me.”
But, she said, “there’s a very small population that does not, and they are extremely vocal about it.”
“They are aggressive, and there have been threats, and there’s been hate,” Cross said. “So, while it’s like an 80/20, it feels more of a 50/50, which has been hard.”
Along the way, Cross also had to witness the athlete win the girls’ state championship in shot put this past May, just weeks before the Supreme Court ruling that later prohibited the athlete from competing against girls.
“It was extremely frustrating for me and for I know several other girls,” Cross said of the trans athlete winning the championship.
“All of my friends that have been working to be at the top for years, they had the first place spot taken from them, and then every other place, um, behind that, and it’s just, it’s been really hard. Even though I’m not competing, I know the frustrations everybody else is having, and they stand no chance, and it’s not their fault, it’s biological reality.”
And now, despite the fact that the athlete won’t be returning to girls’ sports, Cross said that she won’t be returning to sports either, as too much time has passed since she last competed.
“As much as I would like to, I don’t plan on it. I will be a senior this year, and after not participating for two years, I won’t be anywhere near with comparing with the other girls because of the training they have had versus what I haven’t had,” she said.
How she got through it
Cross said she was 14 when she first had the chance to speak publicly about what she says happened. She said she was afraid.
“When I first had the option to stand up, I was 14, and I was terrified, and I didn’t really want to,” Cross said. “I told God that I would do it if He made it abundantly clear for me, and He did. He has showed up for me since.”
Cross said a Bible verse helped convince her to go forward.
“The next day, I got on my phone, and the verse of the day on the Bible app was Esther 4:14, which is, ‘Perhaps you were created for such a time as this,’ and I knew that that was what He wanted me to be doing,” Cross said.
She said the verse stayed with her through the case.
“All throughout the case, that verse has been so prevalent in my life,” Cross said. “He has remained faithful.”
Cross said the case has also changed the way she sees her own school experience.
Bridgeport High School, she said, is built around sports and activities. Cross said she has had to quit three extracurriculars she loved because of the fallout.
“I definitely feel like I’ve kind of missed a bit of the camaraderie and the friendship that comes from it,” Cross said. “I definitely miss that, but it’s all worth it to protect women and girls.”
Cross said she believes the national debate often leaves out the girls who are directly affected.
“I think that the media likes to focus heavily on how the transgender athletes feel about the situations happening,” Cross said. “What they should be focusing on is how the biological women are being affected.”
“This is their spaces, and it is being taken from them,” she added.
She said her frustration is not only with the athlete, but with the adults she believes failed to protect her.
“It is really frustrating of my school district, because I went to them with the issues, and I thought that they would handle it, and I thought that they would protect me,” Cross said. “I know that they confirmed it happened. I know several other children confirmed that it was happening to me, and they completely ignored it.”
“They attempted to silence me,” she added. “They attempted to silence my parents, and that’s really frustrating, especially as a 14-year-old.”
Cross said the experience still weighs on her because she wonders how many other girls may be afraid to speak up.
“I just wanted to compete in sports,” Cross said. “It’s really hard to think about even now, to know how many other kids could they be doing that to? How many other situations of sexual abuse are happening that they’re silencing? It’s just really frustrating.”
Now, with the Supreme Court ruling behind her, Cross said she hopes people will look beyond the politics and listen to girls who say they have been affected.
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“I urge people to think for themselves,” Cross said. “Actually look into the facts of the cases, and to what’s actually happened to countless girls, and to not let the media tell them what to think.”
“Actually use their minds,” she added, “and look into what’s actually happening.”
