Three former University students sued Penn, Harvard University, the NCAA, and the Ivy League over alleged Title IX violations.
Credit: Kylie CooperPenn filed a motion on Monday to dismiss a lawsuit from three former Penn swimmers alleging Title IX violations stemming from the school’s decision to allow 2022 College graduate and transgender woman Lia Thomas to compete for Penn women’s swimming and diving at that year’s Ivy League championships.
The three swimmers — 2022 College graduate Grace Estabrook, 2024 College graduate Margot Kaczorowski, and 2024 College graduate Ellen Holmquist — first sued Penn, Harvard, the Ivy League, and the NCAA in February. Holmquist specifically alleged that she was left off the Ivy League championship roster because of Thomas’ participation on the team.
In the April 21 motion, the University wrote that the plaintiffs “cannot establish causation against Penn” because they “do not allege that Penn played any role in establishing the locker room set up at the 2022 Ivy League Championships” and “failed to plead that they suffered a concrete injury related to their claims.”
Estabrook wrote in a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian in February that she wanted “to see enduring legal precedence set to ensure that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.”
A University spokesperson declined to comment. Requests for comment were left with Kaczorowski, Holmquist, Estabrook, and the plaintiffs’ and defendants’ lawyers.
The plaintiffs stated in the original lawsuit filing that in the three years since the competition, they “have dealt with feelings of abandonment, betrayal, humiliation, and harassment … with the ramifications of losses of placement, ill treatment, emotional turmoil, and invasion of privacy” due to the defendants allowing Thomas to compete and use the women’s locker room at the 2022 championship meet.
Harvard — which hosted the 2022 championships and is being sued for not providing a “unisex bathroom or separate bathroom for Thomas to use” or for other women who did not want to use the women’s bathroom while Thomas was using it — also filed to dismiss, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. In the motion, Penn and Harvard claimed that they adhered to the NCAA policies and Title IX regulations that existed at the time, which allowed Thomas to compete in women’s swimming and diving and use the women’s locker room.
The lawsuit was originally filed on Feb. 4, one day before 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
The executive order promised to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities” and cited Title IX to state that schools with federal funding could not allow transgender women to compete in athletics because they “cannot deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports.”
On Feb. 6, the Department of Education launched an investigation into Penn, alleging Title IX violations for permitting Thomas to represent Penn women’s swimming and diving during the 2021-22 season. Penn Athletics subsequently removed its diversity, equity, and inclusion policy and transgender student-athlete policy. The next day, the NCAA changed its transgender student-athlete policy to align with Trump’s executive order.
The Trump administration announced on March 19 that it would freeze over $175 million in federal funding to the University, citing Penn allowing Thomas to compete for the women’s swimming and diving team. A University spokesperson wrote in a statement at the time that Penn has “always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies” and does not have its own policy “regarding student participation on athletic teams.”
“We have been in the past, and remain today, in full compliance with all the regulations that apply not only to Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions,” the spokesperson wrote.
Thomas collected numerous accolades in her time on the women’s swimming and diving team, including three Ivy League titles and individual program records, an NCAA championship, and a nomination for NCAA Woman of the Year.
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