A physical altercation at a Wisconsin high school is scrambling the final stretch of the state’s race for governor, pulling parental rights and transgender school policies into the middle of a contest that had been defined by other issues.
According to The Daily Wire, the incident took place September 17 at Oregon High School, in the Oregon School District just outside Madison. Parents say a biological male student who identifies as a woman clashed with female classmates after being permitted into the girls’ locker room. Police were summoned to restore order. Parents and students told the outlet that the same student had been using the women’s restroom for an extended period and that families had been raising objections for some time without success.
A Parent Says She Learned of the Fight From a Student’s Video
Leigh Burmeister, a parent at the school, told The Daily Wire that families were not notified after the altercation. She said she only found out about it after a student sent her video of the fight directly.
Superintendent Shannon Anderson defended the district’s approach in an email to at least one concerned parent, pointing to a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling holding that a transgender student must be allowed to use the restroom matching their gender identity under Title IX. Anderson said the practice also conforms with school board policy.
That policy, Oregon School Board Policy 157, bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and gender nonconformity. The high school’s 2026-27 handbook, according to the outlet, places priority on advancing what it describes as equity, inclusion, social justice and anti-racism.
Anderson also outlined a procedural requirement: to use a restroom different from the sex assigned at birth, a student and parent or guardian must have a signed Gender Support Plan completed in collaboration with student services staff and administration. That plan, per the outlet, allows students to select whichever restroom is most comfortable for them, asks what faculty support they will need, and includes space to choose locker rooms and describe how the student can be fully included in athletics.
Tiffany Puts Transgender Policies at the Center of His Closing Argument
Republicans have seized on the episode. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the GOP nominee, told The Daily Wire that Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, the Democratic nominee, has a long record of backing policies that Tiffany says put girls at risk.
“Crowley supports allowing men to compete in girls’ sports, co-sponsored legislation requiring taxpayers to fund menstrual products in boys’ bathrooms at public schools, and signed a resolution that referred to mothers as ‘birthing parents,'” Tiffany said. The outlet identified Tiffany as a Minnesota representative, though he is running for governor of Wisconsin.
Tiffany leaned on his own family in making the case. “As a father of three daughters, I understand how important it is for parents to know their children are safe at school,” he said. “What is happening in New Richmond and now at the Oregon School District will not happen when I am governor.”
The New Richmond reference points to a separate flashpoint. Early in 2026, concerns arose in the New Richmond School District over potential Title IX violations after students alleged that biological men were being allowed into women’s restrooms. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation in response.
Crowley’s Record Under the Microscope
Crowley won a contentious Democratic primary, edging leftist Francesca Hong by roughly 3,000 votes. Since then he has largely avoided the subject of school bathroom and locker room policies. He has not commented on either the Oregon or New Richmond situations, according to The Daily Wire, and did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment.
His history on transgender-related issues is well documented. In 2017, he co-sponsored a bill calling on the state to recognize a Transgender Day of Remembrance. Two years later he co-sponsored legislation to create a transgender equality task force that would study legal and societal barriers to equality for transgender, intersex, nonbinary and gender nonconforming people in healthcare, K-12 schools, prisons and other areas the panel deemed relevant.
As Milwaukee County Executive, Crowley has been a visible presence at pride events. In 2024 he posted a photo of himself at a pride parade, and in June 2026 he attended an event marking the raising of the intersex progress pride flag over Milwaukee.
Late in August 2026, the Human Rights Campaign endorsed Crowley along with Democratic governors including Kathy Hochul and JB Pritzker. The organization has lobbied in Wisconsin to allow biological men to compete in women’s sports, pushed for children’s access to puberty blockers, encouraged elementary school curricula that teach about transgenderism, and sought protections for doctors from lawsuits brought by minors harmed by gender transition procedures, according to the outlet.
What a Governor Could Actually Do
Tiffany has pledged to make protecting girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms a priority if elected. The mechanics are not simple. Wisconsin law does not give governors the unilateral power to rewrite school district policies by executive order. A governor could, however, sign statewide legislation governing bathroom access, consistent with federal law and Seventh Circuit precedent.
The political terrain is unsettled. School districts across Wisconsin have been navigating competing pressures — federal guidance, court rulings, local policy language and vocal parent groups — for several years, and the Oregon episode arrives late enough in the campaign that it may shape turnout and messaging in the race’s final weeks. Whether it does will depend in part on how long Crowley maintains his silence and how aggressively Tiffany and outside groups keep the issue in front of voters.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/wisconsin-dem-silent-as-high-school-brawl-puts-transgender-issues-front-and-center-in-governor-race