A 14‑year‑old boy from Mesa, Arizona, was ejected from Eastmark High School’s boys’ basketball tryouts after the school discovered that his birth certificate mistakenly lists him as female. The error was found when the student’s parents submitted a new birth certificate and a doctor’s note to the district before the October 14 tryouts.
The day the teenager—named Laker Jackson—arrived on the court, school officials physically removed him from the gym and told the coach that he could only play on the girls’ team because of the gender marker on the original paperwork. His mother, Becky Jackson, said the removal happened right in front of his friends and the coach. She explained that until last year she was unaware of the mistake, and the confusion only surfaced after the school district asked for the documents needed to verify his gender.
Laker had played on boys’ teams all his life, even winning a wrestling conference championship the previous year. He did not realize there was an error until the school requested the documents. After the district received a corrected birth certificate and a doctor’s note confirming that Laker is a biological male, the school maintained that his original birth certificate is still the standard used for determining sports eligibility. “We rely on a student’s original birth certificate at birth to determine athletic eligibility,” a district representative said.
The decision means Laker can join the girls’ basketball team if he chooses to play until his legal gender status is clarified. It also opened up the possibility of chromosome testing. The school offered to help the family arrange such testing, but the costs “could range from free to over $2,000,” according to the National Library of Medicine. Becky Jackson said she was unsure what to do next and has expressed reluctance to seek more testing.
The incident has sparked discussion about fairness and equality in high‑school athletics. Some students have teased Laker because of the situation, while he says he is comfortable playing with the boys if given the chance. As of now, the Queen Creek Unified School District has stood by its policy of using the original birth certificate to make assignment decisions for boys’ and girls’ sports teams.
Source: New York Post
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