A school board meeting in California drew national attention this week after a high school athlete spoke out about being forced to change clothes in front of a biologically male student, leading to emotional testimony and a tense exchange with school board leadership.
The controversy unfolded during the Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD) board meeting on Wednesday.
Celeste Diest, a junior girls’ track athlete at Arroyo Grande High School, addressed the board to share her experience of being undressed in a locker room while a transgender athlete — who is biologically male — was present and allegedly watching her and other girls change.
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“I went into the women’s locker room to change for track practice where I saw, at the end of my row, a biological male watching not only myself, but the other young women undress. This experience was beyond traumatizing,” Diest said during her remarks, becoming emotional and choking up in the process.
Diest continued her statement, “Adults like yourself make me and my peers feel like our own comfort was invalid, even though our privacy was and still is completely violated.”
As she began to cry, she added, “That is basic biology,” referencing the trans athlete’s XY chromosomes.
Before she could finish, LMUSD board president Colleen Martin interrupted, telling Diest, “Okay, please wrap it up,” while motioning for her to conclude.
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Despite the interruption, Diest finished her comments, saying, “I just want to ask ‘What about us?’ We cannot sit around and allow our rights to be given up to cater to an individual that is a man, who watches women undress and is stripping away female opportunity that once was fought for us. Sadly, we have to try and regain our rights back. I hope you put effort into the restoration of our school safety.”
Diest’s remarks were met with loud applause from the crowd.
WATCH: A California high school girl tearfully recounts to her school board having to change in front of a biological male before track practice.
Celeste Diest is a junior in the Lucia Mar Unified School District. She said the biological male watched both her and other girls… pic.twitter.com/DV0UQhpcI2
— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) April 17, 2025
Martin attempted to cut off the audience reaction by banging her gavel and shouting, “No!” as the cheering intensified.
Eventually, the applause quieted, and the next speaker continued.
Prior to Diest’s statement, another community member, Shannon Kessler, asked Martin if she could yield her allotted speaking time to Diest, but Martin declined the request, saying, “We’re not doing that.”
The heartless woman who disrespectfully told female student athlete to “wrap it up” is Lucia Mar School Board President Colleen Martin. She ran on “service, advocacy and care.”
Martin and every other board member showed zero emotion — no empathy or concern— while Celeste Diest… https://t.co/o6JnxF0FEB pic.twitter.com/qGT0nwEhX5
— Victoria Coley (@VictoriaRColey) April 18, 2025
Several parents and students spoke in opposition to the school’s policy on transgender athletes, while others voiced support for transgender inclusion.
California law currently allows students to participate in school sports and access facilities consistent with their gender identity, regardless of biological sex.
The policy has been in place since the passage of AB 1266 in 2014.
The law mandates that students in California “participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity.”
State regulation also defines gender broadly under section 4910(k) of the California Code of Regulations, which includes a person’s “perceived identity, appearance or behavior,” regardless of sex at birth.
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) follows the state law and has reaffirmed its policy in recent statements.
A CIF spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “The CIF provides students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete in education-based experiences in compliance with California law… consistent with the student’s gender identity.”
Efforts to challenge the law through the state legislature have so far failed.
On April 1, California’s Democrat-controlled legislature rejected two proposed bills that would have restricted participation in girls’ sports to biological females.
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The issue remains a point of conflict in the state, which has continued to permit transgender athletes to compete in female sports despite President Donald Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.
That order directs schools to prohibit biological males from participating in female athletic programs.
The LMUSD board has not indicated whether it will revise its current policies following the public backlash.
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Sick world
Democrats are sick. The world is stable.
There were apparently several girls in the changing room at the time. Why didn’t they beat the hell out of the pervert?
Hi, I’m old … 72 … it is the men in our world who under GOD/JESUS are to protect women and children. If females step out of this role and beat the guy it won’t end well. It is the NATUREAL place for men to protect. They don’t need to ask permission to protect. Just saying. We need to return to GOD of the Bible. Thanks. I appreciate your anger. I’m a woman.
For one to believe they are something they clearly are not in clinical insanity. To coddle such a person is destructive, not compassionate.
Are we now required to have conversations with a schizophrenic’s make-believe friend?
It’s curious that 10 years ago, we didn’t have trans people. We only got them when it became trendy.
This “school” board needs to be charged with child abuse.
These pervert pass laws need to stop. How do you tell the difference between a voyeuristic boy and a trans boy identifying as a girl? You don’t.
Boys are simply boys. There’s no change completed by surgery that actually changes them. No need for them to pretend to be a girl. Maybe they don’t want the opportunities that come with their own gender and believe they are badly treated. Too bad they feel this way.
They need some counseling to get their biological self into what it is capable of.
California destroyed by Democrats and perverts.The former Golden State is a crime ridden perverted sewer run by Democrats/Communists
Democrat-controlled-through-grift legislature
United Kingdom just ruled that “men are not women”period!
The United States of America needs to follow suit. President Trump has already ruled that their are only two genders, Male and Female. He is correct. What stops a biological male from claiming to be a woman but his real objective is to rape and murder? As far as I know, there is nothing. Liberals have lost their way. They have exactly ZERO Common Sense.
This is a revolting mental sickness that girls in school should not be subjected to by adults – just to kowtow to perverts. It is unbelievable that girls are having to put up with what just a few years ago was clearly classed as a sex crime.
Let’s be clear if a girl find a male in her locker room she should react by not changing and leaving immediately. If your keep allowing for creeps to share your spaces then this sickly attitude is going to continue. The so called authorities are a complicit part of the problems arising from these sickly attitudes.