Despite national and state-level discussions of banning transgender athletes from playing sports consistent with their gender identity, Hershey High School continues an inclusive policy for transgender and gender nonconforming students.
Cole Gillow, health teacher and girls basketball coach at Hershey High School, is currently getting their master’s degree in sports administration, with a focus on transgender athletes.
Explaining the school’s policy, Gillow said, “However the student identifies, they would compete. Our policy has been pretty inclusive.”
Adopted in 2019, the Derry Township School District non-discrimination policy states that “participation in competitive athletics, intramural sports, athletic teams, competitions, and contact sports shall be facilitated in a manner consistent with the student’s gender identity.”
Even so, some questions remain. Gillow fears that support is only available when a student has the autonomy and self-advocacy to ask for it. They said, “There are times, [when] as an adult, having to self-advocate, it can be scary.”
Brandon Swords, gifted education teacher and assistant varsity football coach at Hershey High School, said, “There’s always been politics that leaked into sports, and I disagree with the idea that certain athletes should shut up and [play]… that they don’t have their rights.”
Gillow said, “The gender of everything is still part of our culture here. We’re not there as a society, so it’s hard to have these conversations at a school level, especially a public school.”
Last month, the Pennsylvania Senate passed SB 1293, a bill that would prevent people assigned male at birth from competing on girls’ or women’s sports teams at state-funded schools and colleges. The bill will continue on to the Pennsylvania House, where the Democrat-majority holds enough votes to block its passage.
When SB 1293 was debated on the Senate floor on April 22, 2026, the bill’s prime sponsor, Senator Judy Ward, said, “Sports have always been separated by biological sex, not gender identity. This bill maintains that long-standing standard.”
Debates around the participation of transgender people in sports continue to evolve, but for now, students at Derry Township School District are still allowed to compete in accordance with their gender identity.
Summing up the issue, Gillow said, “It’s larger than sports. Sports are inherently political, and they are a mirror of society. They show us what we as a society deem important.”
