They Banned Parents Over Pink Wristbands, and the Legal Bill Reached $275,000https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2026/11/05/they-banned-parents-over-pink-wristbands-the-legal-bill-reached-275000-n4959079Kyle Fellers missed half his daughter’s senior-year soccer games after a dispute over a pink wristband. Two years later, Bow School District has a federal judgment declaring that it violated the parents’ First Amendment rights, plus a settlement providing $275,000 in legal fees and costs.
The wristbands carried two letters: XX. Apparently, defending girls’ sports required parents to defend their right to wear something smaller than the average school identification badge.
From KSAT:
In a dismissal order Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe said the men have a First Amendment right to silently wear the wristbands and that school officials violated it. Under a settlement agreement, the district’s risk pool will pay $225,000 to the Institute for Free Speech, which represented the men in court, and $50,000 to the men's attorney. The plaintiffs will each get $17.91, an amount that symbolizes the year states ratified the First Amendment.
Fellers said he missed half of his daughter’s soccer games during her senior year because he stood up for what he believes in. The wristbands were marked “XX” to represent female chromosomes.
“It took more than two years, but the court has recognized that what happened to us was wrong,” he said in a statement.
That $275K of wasted taxpayer $$ is in addition to the taxpayer $$ wasted defending the indefensible. That school district's voters need to impose some ballot-box accountability on the school board members who chose to waste taxpayer $$ in this case.
