16-year-old Michigan volleyball player files Title IX lawsuit over male opponent

A 16-year-old Michigan volleyball player and her father filed a federal lawsuit Oct. 9 alleging school officials violated her rights by knowingly allowing her to compete against a male athlete and allowing him to use the girls’ locker room facilities without the girl’s or her parents’ knowledge.

The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on behalf of 10th-grader Briley Lechner and her father, Sean Lechner, against Monroe Public Schools District, the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA), Superintendent Andrew Shaw, and Athletic Director Chet Hesson. 

The complaint centers on a Sept. 9, 2025, varsity girls’ volleyball match at Monroe against Ann Arbor Skyline High School, according to the law center’s Oct. 12 press release. The suit alleges that Monroe’s athletic director and coaching staff knew a day before the match that Skyline’s team included a male who identifies as a “transgender” female but did not inform Monroe’s players or their parents. 

According to the release, the suit also alleges that school officials allowed the male player to use girls’ locker room facilities at Monroe without the home team’s knowledge. The suit challenges the district’s handling of its girls’ athletic program under Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. 

“My goal is to preserve opportunities and safety for female athletes, ensuring that sports remain a space where girls can compete fairly, achieve their potential, and feel safe,” Briley said in the release.

Her father added, “Our daughters should never have to stand alone while the adults entrusted to protect them stay silent. As a father, I will not remain silent.”

The dispute also concerns how school officials handled the Lechners’ formal Title IX complaint. According to the law center, the district deemed the allegations “unsubstantiated” but withheld witness identities and statements, limiting the family’s ability to challenge the findings.

The complaint further alleges that school officials attempted to justify their conduct, rejected the plaintiffs’ formal Title IX discrimination complaint, and deprived plaintiffs of a meaningful administrative appeal.

“Title IX was enacted to protect girls and women from sex discrimination in education,” TMLC President and Chief Counsel Richard Thompson said in the release. “It was not enacted to allow school officials to disregard the very distinctions that make equal athletic opportunities for girls possible.”

The Lechners further allege that the school board discussed their appeal in closed session and adjourned without publicly voting on its merits. Under the district’s procedures, the board must consider the appeal and vote on it in open session, according to the release. The district then treated the superintendent’s determination as affirmed because the board had not voted, the law center said.

“A right to appeal means little if the officials responsible for deciding the appeal simply refuse to act,” Thompson said.

According to the release, Briley has received support from former collegiate swimmer and women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines and Kim Jones, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., also presented Briley with a “Courageous Voice Award” for her advocacy for female athletes.

“This lawsuit is about much more than a single volleyball game,” Thompson said. “It’s about whether public school officials can, with deliberative indifference, knowingly sacrifice the rights of female athletes to accommodate a biological male athlete, conceal that decision from the girls and their parents, and then evade accountability under federal law and the U.S. Constitution.”

In an Oct. 12 X post, Gaines highlighted the suit, writing, “This is the way.”