It began as a play in an early season high school volleyball match in the small town of Highlands, North Carolina. A skilled girl for Highlands got a perfect set, laid down a hard spike, and the opposing player wasn't ready to handle it. The ball hit the girl in the face causing an injury the forced her to leave the match. Something that happens in the sport. A few weeks later, a school board meets on what happened in the game, and it lead to a decision for all the county high school to forfeit against Highlands. The official reason was "safety concerns". But underneath there was hearsay about the player who dropped that scoring hit. A noted right-wing bias website blared out that the student-athlete was a transgender girl, even though her identity was never revealed publicly. Once again, trans sport panic would strike. This time the in a small town in western North Carolina. Or would it? A journalist named Brittney Lofthouse, founder of a small local news blog, didn't take the school board or the clickbait sites at face value. She asked questions and dug in amid the hysteria of certain media which have never hid anti-trans sentiment. Her prime question was the school board kept the kids' identity out of this, why are you reporting hearsay? Karleigh Webb sat down with Lofthouse to look at what is actually known, what was speculation and how this could affect how recent stories have been covered, and how future stories like this may be. Also This Week: Affirming care at high risk in Florida One less homophobe/transphobe as a head of state Karleigh's Last Call: The Value Of Free Speech Disc Golf to ban trans women for competing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices