Michigan father sues school over alleged male athlete in girls’ volleyball locker room 

A Michigan father is suing his daughter’s school district over its transgender locker room and sports policies.

Sean Lechner says school officials never disclosed that a male athlete was on an opposing girls’ volleyball team. They also allowed the player in a girls’ locker room.

Lechner filed the lawsuit in federal court last week. It names Monroe Public Schools, Superintendent Andrew Shaw, Athletic Director Chet Hesson and the Michigan High School Athletic Association as defendants. Monroe is located about 40 miles southwest of Detroit and has about 4,400 public school students.

Lechner’s 16-year-old daughter, Briley, plays varsity girls’ volleyball for Monroe High School.

The case involves a September 2025 game in which Monroe faced Ann Arbor Skyline High School. The family says Hesson and the team’s coaches knew Skyline had a male transgender-identifying player on its team but withheld this information from the girls and their parents. It also says officials let the player use the girls’ locker room.

Lechner first filed a Title IX complaint last December, as Heartlander News reported. He argued that schools didn’t protect the girls’ privacy or provide fair competition.

Monroe hired an outside investigator to review the claims. In April, Shaw told families Lechner’s allegations were “unsubstantiated.” Shaw said nothing the school did violated access to teams, student safety or privacy, Michigan Advance reported.

The family disagrees with how the district handled the review.

The lawsuit says officials withheld witness statements and identities. Additionally, it says the school board privately discussed the family’s appeal but never addressed it publicly.

“Our daughters should never have to stand alone while the adults entrusted to protect them stay silent,” Lechner said in a statement this week.

The Thomas More Law Center, which represents the family, says the schools violated Title IX and the Constitution’s equal protection rule. Title IX bans sex discrimination in schools that receive federal money.

The Education Department opened investigations into Monroe and Ann Arbor schools in June, as Heartlander News reported. Those investigations are separate from the family’s lawsuit.

Similar cases have happened elsewhere.

In Vermont, Blake Allen and her father, Travis, got a $125,000 settlement after suing over punishment for opposing a male transgender-identifying volleyball player using the girls’ locker room.

The school suspended the father, who coached there, and the daughter, who attended the school, for their comments about the player. Their lawsuit said officials violated free speech rights.

The 2023 settlement covered damages and legal costs. It also required the Orange Southwest School District to reinstate Travis as a soccer coach and remove investigation records against Blake, as Heartlander News previously reported.

Meanwhile, in California, three Jurupa Valley High School athletes sued in September 2025 over a male teammate’s access to girls’ sports and locker rooms. Two were Catholic girls, and one was a Muslim girl who said sharing those spaces violated their religious beliefs.

The girls say they had to use a nurse’s restroom or storage room to avoid changing in front of the trans athlete. They also allege unwanted touching and sexual comments.

Their case remains open. However, they faced a setback in May.

U.S. District Judge Sunshine Suzanne Sykes dismissed several of their claims. She ruled that the school district had immunity from their constitutional claims for money damages. She let the girls revise some Title IX claims and move forward with a sexual harassment claim, court records show.