California superintendent candidate Sonja Shaw was removed from a California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Council meeting after making an unscheduled and forceful speech about transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports. Shaw, who chairs the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education, said officials treated her as a trespasser and called police, although officers did not intervene. The incident highlights the political and legal dispute over California’s approach to transgender participation in school sport.

Shaw said she had repeatedly asked CIF to place the issue on its agenda and argued that federal Title IX protections should override California law. State law and CIF policy allow students to compete in sex-segregated school activities according to their gender identity, while the Trump administration has argued that this disadvantages female athletes. The Justice Department sued California education officials and CIF in July 2025, but the article says a federal judge later dismissed the case.