The mother of a transgender volleyball player has criticised school officials in California after an opposing team forfeited a scheduled match rather than play against her daughter.
Jurupa Valley High School’s girls’ volleyball squad, which includes transgender athlete AB Hernandez, was set to face Riverside Poly High School on August 15. The game was cancelled when Riverside Poly announced it would not take part, later releasing a statement describing the decision as “disappointing” but insisting the school remained committed to providing “a safe, positive environment for all student-athletes throughout the season.”
Parents who spoke to local media said the forfeit was linked directly to Hernandez’s inclusion on the Jurupa Valley roster, though they claimed the decision was made by school officials rather than the players themselves.
Amanda Vickers, a member of the Riverside Unified School District board, spoke to Fox News Digital after the cancellation, citing the case of Payton McNabb, a North Carolina high school volleyball player who sustained a head injury in 2022 during a game against a transgender athlete. “Tonight, the girls of Riverside Poly High School, they’re not going to end up like Payton McNabb,” Vickers said.
The comments prompted a sharp response from Hernandez’s mother, Nereyda, who addressed a school board meeting later in the week. She accused Vickers of encouraging hostility toward her daughter. “You are a board member. You have an oath to protect, to support all children, not just the ones that fit your ideas, your beliefs,” she told attendees. “My daughter is not the problem. The problem is coordinated external efforts, often led by individuals that travel from district to district, to spread fear and put parents against each other using religion as a shield for discrimination.”
She added that her daughter was being unfairly targeted. “This has nothing to do with fairness in sports and everything to do with erasing transgender children,” she said.
The incident is the latest in a series of controversies surrounding Hernandez’s participation in high school athletics. Earlier this year she was subjected to heckling at a track meet at Yorba Linda High School, where Capital and Main reported that around 30 adults, including three local school board members, shouted at her throughout the competition. The noise even caused a false start in one of the races.
Reflecting on the experience, Hernandez said she tried to stay focused despite the hostility. “There’s nothing I can do about people’s actions, just focus on my own,” she said. “I’m still a child, you’re an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person.”
In recent months, postseason meets she has competed in have drawn protests from female athletes and their families, some of whom wore “Save Girls Sports” T-shirts. The shirts have been criticised by school officials, who in at least one lawsuit compared them to hate symbols.
The wider issue has also drawn in national politics. President Donald Trump referenced the California controversy last week in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our transgender policies will not be funded,” he wrote.
Trump’s administration has taken a combative stance on the issue, suing the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation in July over policies that allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports. The lawsuit alleged the rules violated federal anti-discrimination laws, though California has defended them as consistent with protections for students’ rights.
In February, Trump signed a directive threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that permit transgender women or girls to participate in female athletic programmes. “It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,” the order stated, claiming such policies risked “endangerment, humiliation, and silencing” of female athletes.
At the time, Trump declared that “the war on women’s sports is over.” His critics, however, argue that the administration’s actions amount to an erosion of protections for transgender youth.
For Nereyda Hernandez, the political debate has had a direct impact on her daughter’s day-to-day life. Speaking at the board meeting, she said the rhetoric had emboldened harassment and left young athletes like AB bearing the brunt of adults’ anger. “My daughter deserves to play, just like every other child,” she said.
The debate shows no signs of subsiding. With Riverside Poly’s forfeit now the latest flashpoint in California’s ongoing disputes over trans inclusion in school sports, Hernandez’s family insists they will continue to defend her right to compete.
