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With spring sports starting soon, the parents suing the Bow School District over their silent protest want a ruling before players hit the field.

On Wednesday, attorneys representing the parents filed a request for an expedited decision on their request for a preliminary injunction keeping the school district from banning future protests. And, their lawyers told the court, if a ruling is delayed so long it keeps these parents sidelined, they will consider that a denial of their request for relief and pursue an appeal.

Anthony Foote, Kyle Fellers, Nicole Foote, and Eldon Rash were forced to end a silent protest — the wearing of pink wristbands marked with “XX” on the sidelines of the high school soccer field — by angry school administrators last September. They were protesting the fact that their girls team was being forced to compete against a biological male. 

After Foote and Kyle Fellers were slapped with “no trespass” orders from the school, orders enforced by the local police, the parents filed a lawsuit against the Bow school district.

The parents are being represented in court by legal nonprofit organization the Institute for Free Speech.

The lawsuit was filed in September, and United States District Court Judge Stephen McAuliffe has already conducted two days of evidentiary hearings and been fully briefed by both sides in the lawsuit, attorneys for the parent’s said.

But the court has yet to act on their request for a preliminary injunction protecting their First Amendment right to bring their wristbands to games during the upcoming spring sports season. In their view, it’s literally a case of justice delayed being justice denied.

“Spring sports season is the last chance for Plaintiffs to silently express their sociopolitical views at a Bow event this school year, and—because one of Plaintiffs’ children is a high-school senior—the last chance to ever express their views at one child’s events,” the motion states.

“Parties completed their post-hearing briefing on Dec. 17. No decision on the injunction has yet been issued. The winter sports season has now ended, and the Bow schools’ spring sports season begins March 24, with games commencing April 14.”

Two biological males who have been playing on girls sports teams are currently suing in federal court to block a New Hampshire state law protecting girls sports. When President Donald Trump issued an executive order doing the same thing, they added the president to their lawsuit.

One of those players, Plymouth High School’s Parker Tirrell, was on the team Bow was competing against during the previous silent protest.

McAuliffe previously overturned the Bow School District ban against the parents attending games and after-school activities. But he has not yet lifted the ban on wristbands or other forms of silent protest.

As the calendar progresses toward the new sports season and the final season for at least one of the girls, Feller, Foote, and the others want a decision now.

“Plaintiffs have been prevented from silently protesting at Bow School District extracurricular events during both the fall and winter sports seasons. Everyday that passes magnifies Plaintiffs’ injury. Unless they receive injunctive relief from this Court, they will not be able to express their viewpoint during the spring sports season as well, including all of one daughter’s remaining games as a high-school student,” the motion states.

“If no ruling occurs by April 14, Plaintiffs will understand this Court to have constructively denied the injunction, and pursue interlocutory appeal of that denial.”

McAuliffe has acknowledged there is nothing bigoted in the parent’s beliefs that biological males who identify as female should not play full-contact sports with biological girls.

“You’re entitled to your viewpoint, a lot of people hold it,” McAuliffe said.

In fact, polls show a solid majority of Americans support protecting girls sports from biological males. But Bow Superintendent Marcy Kelly doesn’t agree, and she told the court that expressing that view is offensive speech that should be banned.

“XX is a pretty well-known anti-trans symbol,” Kelly said on the stand.

Other controversial symbols, such as the LGBTQ “rainbow flag,” would be welcome, however.

“It’s inclusionary, it’s not targeting or harassing anyone,” Kelly said.

Two Granite State high school girls are so frustrated at having to compete against biological males in all-girls sports competitions that they want to join the ongoing federal lawsuit to defend New Hampshire’s women’s sports law, as well as the two executive orders issued by the Trump administration that protect women’s sports.

“Because I work so hard, it is frustrating and disheartening when it feels like the rights of female athletes are being sidelined or ignored,” one girl said in her court motion. 

Two New Hampshire girls, K.D., and B.W., filed motions along with other female athletes and the organization, Female Athletes United, this week to join the lawsuit brought by biological males Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle. The latter two are suing the State of New Hampshire and President Donald Trump for the right to compete in girls-only sports competitions.

Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Female Athletes United, an association of female athletes, filed a motion Friday with the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire to intervene in the Tirrell v. Edelblut lawsuit.

The lawsuit was first filed in response to New Hampshire’s law, signed by then-Gov. Chris Sununu. But the lawsuit was expanded to include Trump after he signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at the time.

Schools are required to comply with Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex for programs receiving federal funding. The Biden administration issued a rule change declaring an athlete’s sex as “gender identity,” reversing decades of precedent.

The Trump order returned to the recognized biological definition of sex as determined by biology.

Jonathan Scruggs, an attorney with the legal non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom, said the case boils down to whether there’s a physical, biological difference between men and women. For Scruggs and the female athletes, it’s clear men and boys are different from women and girls.

“Biological difference is the obvious matter, and that’s why we’ll win,” Scruggs said.

However, the presiding judge in this case, United States District Court Judge Landya McCafferty, previously wrote in an initial ruling that neither Tirrell nor Turmelle have any physical advantage as biological males.

“Neither Parker nor Iris have undergone male puberty. Neither of them will undergo male puberty. Both have received hormone therapy to induce female puberty, and both have developed physiological changes associated with female puberty. It is uncontested that there is no medical justification to preclude Parker and Iris from playing girls’ sports,” McCafferty wrote.

But K.D., who is from Bow, says in her motion that Tirrell had a definite advantage when she played against him, and he knocked her to the ground several times during game play. She described Tirrell as being larger and more muscular than the girls who were competing. The two played against each other during games in an indoor soccer league 

“In this league, I played against Parker on multiple occasions. Because I was scoring a lot, Parker was assigned to defend me, so we often came into physical contact with one another while playing. On several occasions, Parker knocked me down. It felt noticeably different than when I have run into a female when playing. Parker is sturdier, more muscular, and overall just built differently than a female,” K.D. said in her motion. “I was angry and upset that a male was playing against me and knocking me down. It felt inappropriate and unfair that something like this was happening and that no one in charge seemed to recognize what I and the other girls were going through in having to play against a male.”

Scruggs said K.D.’s experience shows that the popular talking point among activists — that ‘transgender’ players do not have any size or strength advantage over women and girls, is just wrong.

“We’ve seen this kind of false narrative on this subject for some time,” Scruggs said. “The fact is someone’s gender identification is not relevant to athletic performance, biology is.”

B.W., a Gilmanton girl, wrote in her motion that she was apprehensive when her team played against a high school team that included a large biological male as goalie. B.W.’s motion does not name the athlete, but stated she considered the male player’s presence a concern.

“Although we won, it still felt like a violation of the rights of female athletes to have a sports team designated for girls. Especially, because as the male student is the starting goalie, that student was taking a place on the field that would otherwise have gone to a female athlete. If a male student joined my team, I would strongly consider no longer playing for my school. I think it is unsafe and unfair for a male to take a girl’s spot on the girls’ team,” B.W. stated.

Both K.D. and B.W. illustrate the core problems with transgender athletes in girls sports, Scruggs said. 

“It’s a matter of fairness and safety,” Scruggs said. “These have real-world consequences.”

Scruggs said if actual biology is taken into consideration, then Tirrell and Turmelle’s lawsuit ought to be dismissed. 

Marc Jacques, the convicted child porn felon who has been lurking at local girls high school sports events for months, now faces a new round of charges for allegedly possessing child sex abuse images.

According to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young, the latest illicit content found in Jacques’ possession includes “several videos and images that appear to depict pubescent, minor females engaged in sexually explicit conduct.”

But perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that his probation officer had evidence of the alleged crimes for months and never bothered to take action, according to the affidavit filed in the United States District Court in New Hampshire.

Jacques, 50, is the father of Kearsarge High School’s Maelle Jacques, a biological male track athlete who won an NHIAA championship last year while competing against girls. Maelle Jacques’ participation on the Kearsarge girls’ soccer team last season caused several teams to forfeit games as the district ignored a state law protecting female athletes from being forced to compete against males.

But Marc Jacques’ unsupervised attendance at the same games inspired outrage when parents found out about his criminal history. Marc Jacques was allowed to be at numerous high school games and extracurricular events this school year, using his transgender child as a shield. 

Marc Jacques was convicted in March in a child sex abuse image case, but remained free on bail pending his sentencing. Though he was sentenced in September to five years in prison, the former Dartmouth College employee was allowed to remain free on bail — and attend school events — until Dec. 2.

On Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced new charges against Marc Jacques, including a new count of possessing child sex abuse images after he was caught downloading videos and photos depicting children being sexually abused while he was on bail. 

According to Homeland Security Investigations Agent Derek Dunn’s affidavit, Marc Jacques accessed and downloaded the child sex abuse images in August and September using devices that his probation officer was supposed to be monitoring. Marc Jacques was allowed to use a laptop, a desktop computer, and a cell phone while on bail after his probation officer installed monitoring software.

In both instances, the monitoring software captured the activity when Marc Jacques allegedly downloaded the child sex abuse material, but his probation officer never checked the software reports until October, Dunn writes. The videos and images reportedly depict young prepubescent girls being abused.

In October, parents in the high school sports community were concerned that Marc Jacques was attending Kearsarge girl’s soccer games despite his sex crimes conviction. Several parents contacted the United States Attorney’s Office in Concord with questions about why Marc Jacques was being allowed free access to the games.

The United States Attorney’s Office contacted Marc Jacques’ probation officer on Oct. 15 to discuss the conditions of release set for the convicted sex offender. This conversation prompted the probation officer to check the monitoring software on Oct. 16, for the first time since at least August, according to Dunn’s report.

Marc Jaques was arrested on Oct. 18 for violating his bail. He’s since started his five-year sentence in the original case. 

It’s not unheard of for people convicted in federal criminal cases to get a few weeks of freedom before starting their sentences, allowing them to get their personal affairs in order. But Marc Jacques received months of extra time after he pleaded to United States District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro that his transitioning son Maelle Jacques needed him at the high school soccer games.

“Maelle is going need me to be present and in attendance to support [Maelle] and protect [Maelle] in the face of the fears [Maelle] will have of what could happen to [Maelle] on the athletic fields,” Marc Jacques wrote in a letter to the court ahead of his September sentencing.

Kearsarge officials knew about the conviction and sentencing, but allowed Marc Jacques to be at the games anyway. They also said nothing to opposing teams when Kearsarge went on the road. Superintendent John Fortney said in a letter to parents after the Oct. 18 arrest that there was no legal way for the district to stop Marc Jacques from attending the games, despite the conviction.

Marc Jacques is due in the federal court in January for an initial appearance. 

Bow High School superintendent Marcy Kelly rejects the claim that she opposes freedom of expression at school events. She told a federal judge on Friday that flags and symbols are welcome — as long as she agrees with their message.

Specifically, Kelly told United States District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe that, while she stands by her decision to ban parents from wearing pink wristbands in support of girls-only sports, she would welcome the waving of Gay Pride flags and other symbols at the same events.

Soccer dads Kyle Fellers and Anthony Foote were slapped with “no trespass” orders by Kelly and the Bow School District after they wore the wristbands at the Sept. 17 girl’s Bow High School soccer game against Plymouth High School.

Kelly told the court she found the wristbands “exclusionary,” and therefore, she believes she has the authority to ban them from school events.

Kelly testified she knew from emails and social media posts that the men might wear the pink “XX” wristbands, and that was something she wanted to stop. “I had concerns (Foote and Fellers) were going to display an anti-trans message on that one day.”

Kelly admitted she initially considered banning all would-be spectators from the game. Instead, she settled on a plan to have police at the game and use school officials to patrol the sidelines looking for actions or symbols she found offensive.

“XX is a pretty well-known anti-trans symbol,” Kelly claimed.

(According to science, women have XX chromosomes and men have XY chromosomes.)

Del Kolde, an attorney with the nonprofit Institute for Free Speech who is representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Kelly, asked Kelly if she would allow parents to wear LGBTQ+ Rainbow Pride wristbands at games.

No problem, Kelly said. “It’s inclusionary, it’s not targeting or harassing anyone,” she said.

And that, Kolde told NHJournal, is a legal smoking gun.

“The Bow School officials have basically admitted to engaging in viewpoint discrimination. That is illegal in a limited public forum, such as school sporting events. We hope that this censorship regime will soon be enjoined.”

United States District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe has already overturned Bow’s “no trespass” order that prevented Fellers and Foote from going to games and other afterschool events. Whether the dads can engage in silent protests at future games and events by wearing the XX wristbands is still up in the air.

Kelly said her belief that “XX” symbolism is anti-transgender bigotry is on based on her reaction to the work of Riley Gaines, the NCAA swimmer who was forced to compete against a biological male, Lia Thomas.

“I find that when (Gaines) says ‘XX means real women,’ that is exclusionary,” Kelly said.

Gaines has emerged as a national advocate for girls-only sports and private spaces. In August, Gaines came to New Hampshire to support a new law banning males from girls’ support in the 5th through 12th grades. She described “the experience of competing against a man in women’s sports, being forced without warning or consent to undress before the fully intact male.”

Support for protecting girls’ sports from biological males who want to compete has soared over the past few years. Polls in New Hampshire and at the national level show voters support banning males from girls’ sports by a three or four-to-one margin.

Also on Friday, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella joined a group of 24 state attorneys general urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling and uphold an Arizona law prohibiting biological boys from competing on girls’ sports teams.

“Basing the distinction on biology rather than gender identity makes sense because it is the differences in biology—not gender identity—that call for separate teams in the first place: Whatever their gender identity, biological males are, on average, stronger and faster than biological females,” the brief reads in part.

New Hampshire passed a similar law over the unanimous opposition of Democrats in the state House and Senate.

Last week’s hearings in the Bow case will inform McAuliffe’s decision on possibly lifting the ban on silent protests. A trial on the merits of the lawsuit is still to come. 

One of the Bow parents fighting for his right to bear pink, XX wristbands at school athletic events faced a slightly skeptical judge during Thursday’s hearing in the United States District Court in Concord.

When asked by Judge Steven McAuliffe why he wore the wristbands to a Bow girl’s soccer game in September, Anthony “Andy” Foote testified he wanted to support girls in girl’s sports, and not negatively target people in the transgender community with his protest.

“The bottom line is girls are losing what they fought for,” Foote said. 

But McAuliffe wasn’t sold on that explanation, saying it reminds him of the people who protested against the Vietnam War when he was a young man.

“They said, I’m not protesting the war, I’m supporting peace,” McAuliffe said. “I don’t see the difference there.”

Foote, along with fellow soccer dad Kyle Fellers, Foote’s wife Nicole Foote, and Eldon Rash, are suing the Bow School District after they were banned for the offense of wearing pink wristbands marked with XX. Thursday’s evidentiary hearing will allow McAuliffe to decide if the parents can put on the wristbands at games or not. More testimony is anticipated Friday.

After Foote and Fellers were forced to remove the wristbands at the Sept. 17 game, and Fellers was ordered to leave the field, both men were served with no trespassing letters from the Bow School District that banned them from their children’s games and other school events. McAuliffe overturned the ban last month, but he did not block the district’s prohibition against silent forms of protest.

When questioned by the attorneys, both Fellers and Foote maintained on the witness stand they were supporting women’s sports by wearing the wristbands. But McAuliffe wanted to establish Foote and Feller’s need to publicly support for women isn’t occurring in a vacuum. 

“The object of your protest is, ‘I don’t like the fact a trans girl is playing on a girl’s team,’” McAuliffe said. “It’s all about the trans girls playing on girls’ teams.”

McAuliffe previously suggested there is nothing bigoted in believing that transgender girls — aka “biological boys” — should not play full-contact sports with biological girls. He said again Thursday that opinion is not out of bounds.

“You’re entitled to your viewpoint, a lot of people hold it,” McAuliffe said.

Bow’s Sept. 17 game was against the Plymouth High School girl’s team, whose roster includes biological male Parker Tirrell. The week before the Bow game, Tirrell won the right to play on the girl’s team in a lawsuit against New Hampshire’s law banning biological boys from girl’s spots, HB 1205. Tirrell played nearly the whole game against Bow on Sept. 17. 

In the days leading up to the game against Plymouth, and after Tirrell’s legal victory, Foote sent an email to Bow Athletic Director Mike Desilets demanding action to protect the girl’s team.

“Where’s your courage? Where’s your integrity? Stand up for real women or get out of the way,” Foote wrote.

Desilets also received an email from another parent warning about planned disruptive protests at the Plymouth game by angry parents. Foote said that email, warning that soccer dads planned to wear dresses and harass Tirrell, is not based on any facts and the writer had no conversation with him about his protest plans.

And, it was pointed out, none of those events happened.

Instead, the four wore their pink wristbands, there was no comment made toward Tirrell during the game, and no mention of any specific player.

“This was not about heckling Parker Tirrell,” Foote said.

McAuliffe also viewed the police body camera recording of the confrontation between Bow Police Lt. Phil Lamy and Fellers. Fellers had been ordered to leave the field after becoming verbally combative with officials. At his car in the parking lot, Fellers held up a sign with a “Support women in women’s sports” slogan and got into another verbal altercation with Lamy when the game ended.

Fellers was reportedly holding up his sign in the direction of Plymouth’s team bus, but said he did not notice the bus and had no intention of targeting Tirrell.

“I don’t believe anybody should intimidate anybody,” Fellers said.

McAuliffe’s questions about Foote’s intent highlight the nuance in the legal issues at play. While there’s a free speech right to protest, there are also laws against harassment. The school district has maintained it was trying to protect Tirrell from anti-transgender harassment when officials confronted the parents over the wristbands and forced them to remove the items. 

However, that does not explain why the parents were subsequently banned from all after school events. That may be cleared up Friday when Bow Superintendent Marcy Kelly is expected to testify.

The ‘Soccer Dad’ season is over for Marc Jacques.

The father of a male Kearsarge High School athlete who’s a star in girls competitions, Jacques has agreed to start his prison sentence on a federal conviction for distributing child sex abuse images.

Marc Jacques was sentenced to five years in prison back in September. But using concerns over his child’s challenges as a male who identifies as female, he was given until December to turn himself in. Part of the reason was to let him attend his child Maelle Jacques’ girls soccer games.

When parents learned a man convicted of child porn charges was attending their daughters’ soccer matches, they immediately expressed alarm. They were even more upset when the elder Jacques was busted last month for allegedly accessing more child sex abuse images online while he was on supervised, pre-incarceration release.

Last week, Marc Jacques waived his violation hearing and agreed to begin his five-year prison term.

Maelle Jacques, a biological boy, dominated the girls track competition earlier this year. Maelle Jacques’ participation on the Kearsarge girl’s soccer team caused several teams to forfeit games as the district openly flouts a state law banning biological boys from girl’s sports.

Initially, girls on opposing teams and their families were concerned about the competitive imbalance presented by Maelle Jacques playing goalie, but they were later outraged to learn that Marc Jacques was attending the games despite his status as a convicted sex offender.

Marc Jacques used his child’s sexual identity to successfully plead for more free time before his prison sentence, telling United States District Court Judge Paul Barbadoro that Maelle Jacques needed him at the games.

“Maelle is going to need me to be present and in attendance to support [Maelle] and protect [Maelle] in the face of the fears [Maelle] will have of what could happen to [Maelle] on the athletic fields,” Marc Jacques wrote in a letter to the court.

Kearsarge officials knew about the conviction and sentence, but they allowed Marc Jacques onto school property to attend games anyway. They also said nothing to opposing teams when Kearsarge went on the road, either. Superintendent John Fortney said in a letter to parents there was no legal way for the district to stop Marc Jacques from attending the games.

“Because these events are open to the public, the district may restrict access only in the case of a prior civil no trespass order, or active court order. In general terms, we cannot selectively determine who may or may not attend any event,” Fortney stated. 

Whether or not the opposing school administrators had advance knowledge of Marc Jacques’ conviction, none of them seemed able or willing to put a stop to his presence.

Hopkinton school officials only found out about Marc Jacques’ conviction when Hillsboro-Deering mother Betsy Harington alerted them hours before Kearsarge and Marc Jacques were set to be in Hopkinton last month.

While Hopkinton did contact police to be present at that game, no steps appear to have been taken to either block Marc Jacques from the game, or alert Hopkinton parents. 

Officials at Bishop Brady High School in Concord were aware of Marc Jacques and his conviction before their game last month with Kearsarge. But Bishop Brady girls and their parents were advised by the Roman Catholic Diocese not to boycott the game. In fact, the girls and their families were told to play against Kearsarge so as not to discriminate against Maelle Jacques.

When it comes to obeying the law, the Kearsarge School District is suffering from legal schizophrenia.

On one hand, district officials claim they can’t stop a convicted sex offender busted for child pornography from walking on campus to attend girls soccer games.

On the other hand, they claim the right to ignore New Hampshire’s state law banning biological males from playing on the girls’ soccer team.

The player is Maelle Jacques, a biological male who identifies as a girl and plays goalie for Kearsarge.

The convicted sex offender, who’s scheduled to report to prison in December but insists on attending games today, is Jacques’ father, Marc.

Kearsarge is scrambling to contain the damage the district’s administration created when it became known that officials were aware that parent Marc Jacques pleaded guilty to distributing child sex abuse images earlier this year. Marc Jacques was never prevented by school officials from going to any girl’s soccer games this year to watch his child Maelle Jacques compete.

“Because these events are open to the public, the district may restrict access only in the case of a prior civil no trespass order, or active court order. In general terms, we cannot selectively determine who may or may not attend any event,” Superintendent John Fortney said in a letter sent to parents this week.

Marc Jacques is back in custody after he allegedly violated the conditions of his pre-incarceration release by possessing a flash drive containing more child sex abuse images.  Marc Jacques was sentenced to five years in prison last month, but given until December to report to prison authorities to begin his sentence. 

It is not unusual for federal defendants to get a few weeks of freedom between the sentencing hearing and the start of their incarceration. That time is meant to allow the defendants to get their affairs in order before going to prison. 

But Marc Jacques was given months of pre-incarceration release after he pleaded with the court that his child, Maelle Jacques, needed him at the soccer games. Marc Jacques said factors like the state law banning biological boys from playing girl’s sports, and potential threats of violence against transgender people, required that he be at the games.

“Maelle is going to need me to be present and in attendance to support [Maelle] and protect [Maelle] in the face of the fears [Maelle] will have of what could happen to [Maelle] on the athletic fields,” Marc Jacques wrote.

But Fortney is also telling parents who are upset that a biological male is on the high school’s girls soccer team that Kearsarge is not going to comply with state law. In New Hampshire, state law requires high school athletes to compete on the team that matches their sex at birth.

But the school district told parents who want the law enforced that it refuses to do so.

“Relative to HB 1205, this bill is a violation of federal law, the U.S. Constitution, and NH’s own Civil Rights Provision,” the district declared, without evidence or any court rulings confirming their statements.

While a federal judge has suspended the enforcement of HB 1205 for two specific students, the law has not been overridden, nor has it been declared unconstitutional.

“Kearsarge is violating the law,” an attorney with knowledge of the case told NHJournal on background.

As for the convicted sex offender, Fortney claims Kearsarge takes the safety of all the students seriously, and consulted with police and attorneys about the matter. Sutton Police Chief Jonathan Korbet told NHJournal he had conversations with Kearsarge about the girl’s soccer games.

“We decided it was necessary to provide police details at JV and varsity girl’s soccer games,” Korbet said.

Under the conditions of the pre-incarceration release, Marc Jacques is to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18. Korbet said that condition is vague and difficult to enforce at the soccer games.

“It’s hard to determine what constitutes unsupervised. In a public place, in a public setting, one could argue that’s not unsupervised,” Korbet said.

But Kearsarge knew Marc Jacques was going to away girl’s soccer games as well. Hopkinton Superintendent Michael Flynn said this week officials in his district were unaware of Marc Jacques’ conviction until hours before the Kearsarge team was set to play at Hopkinton on Oct. 7. Flynn also talked to local police and the Hopkinton’s legal team, and put in a safety plan 45 minutes before the game time. Like Fortney, Flynn said he legally could not stop Marc Jacques from attending the game.

“We want to make sure that we, as a school district, follow the laws. I am not able to arrest anybody, and I can’t create court orders,” Flynn said.

At the Oct. 7 Hopkinton game, Marc Jacques was caught on video interacting with a young boy until the child’s mother was alerted. NHJournal has seen the video, but is not sharing it in order to protect the boy’s identity.

The hands-off treatment Marc Jacques received from multiple school districts before he was arrested for violating his release is in stark contrast to the way the Bow School District treated a group of parents who engaged in a silent protest last month.

Kyle Fellers and Anthony “Andy” Foote were slapped with no trespassing orders by Bow school officials for wearing pink “XX” wristbands at the Sept. 17 girl’s soccer game. Bow officials claim they acted out of an obligation to protect a transgender student on the opposing Plymouth High School team from the silent protest. 

The people who allowed a man convicted of distributing child sex abuse images to roam the sidelines at Kearsarge girls’ soccer games are silent now that he’s been arrested yet again, on charges he possessed yet another stash of child pornography.

But one of the parents who blew the whistle on Marc Jacques, Betsy Harrington, is still speaking out. The mother of a Hillsboro-Deering High School student, Harrington, was shocked when she learned about Marc Jasques’ conviction and the fact his status as a felon was being hidden from parents. Harrington first learned about Marc Jacques after she saw him at a girl’s soccer game earlier this month.

“The school never told the girls, never told the parents,” Harrington said.

Many of the Hillsboro-Deering girls boycotted the game with Kearsarge over Maelle Jacques’ participation, a scenario repeating itself all this season. Nearly 6 feet tall, biological male Maelle Jacques is already a champion girls track athlete, easily beating his biologically female competitors during the state championship this year. 

Marc Jacques and Kearsarge have been riding the wave of progressive support for males who identify as female, getting Maelle Jacques nominated for a Biden White House “Girls Leading Change” award. 

A day after the game between the Kearsarge and Hillsboro-Deering girls soccer teams, Harrington was horrified to learn about Marc Jacques’ conviction. Harrington started contacting school officials, police, elected representatives — anyone who might be able to do something about Marc Jaques being at the game.

“Someone has to listen,” Harrington said.

Marc Jaques isn’t going to more games any time soon. He’s locked up as a danger to the community after he was arrested Friday for having a new, secret stash of child sex abuse images, according to court records.

Multiple public officials knew about his conviction for months, and still let him go to games to watch his child compete. In fact, according to U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire Jane Young, it took the efforts of many concerned parents like Harrington calling to get the United State Probation Department to take a second look.

“I commend those parents for calling here. I would ask if there is a parent who has a concern that they continue to call,” Young said.

Marc Jaques pleaded guilty in February to sharing dozens of videos and photos depicting child sex abuse images with pedophiles online. Law enforcement found hundreds of abuse videos and photos on Marc Jacques’ digital devices. He claimed in court that he suffers from a sex addiction.

According to court documents. Marc Jaques spent years chatting online with predators, sharing his fantasies about raping children, and even tracking down the identity of at least one of the victims and sharing that identity with other disturbed men online. And yet school officials allowed him to attend Kearsarge girl’s soccer games.

That stands in stark contrast to the treatment of two parents in Bow, N.H., who were slapped with no trespass orders by the Superintendent of Schools for wearing pink wristbands with “XX” written on them to girls soccer game to show their support for girls-only sports.

Kearsarge School District Superintendent John Fortney, Assistant Superintendent Michael Bessette, and School Board Chair Alison Mastin, all failed to respond to requests for comment NHJournal. A review of Kearsarge school board meetings indicates the board held a non-public session in September dealing with the Marc Jacques legal question.

After the guilty plea, Marc Jacques was free on bail pending his sentencing hearing in the United States District Court in Concord. He was sentenced to five years in prison last month, but given until December to report to the Bureau of Prisons to begin his sentence. From his guilty plea through to his arrest last week, Marc Jacques was under no legal restriction to stay away from people under the age of 18. 

However, according to his sentencing form filed in court, once he serves his prison sentence and is released on probation, Marc Jacques will be prohibited from any contact with a child under 18, and he will be prohibited from even going to a park, playground, or sporting event where people under the age of 18 will be present. 

Chief United States Probation Officer Kevin Lavigne declined to speak in detail about Marc Jacques’ release conditions, and he could not answer why a man deemed too dangerous to be around children once he has served his prison sentence was allowed to be around children before he reported to prison.

Harrington, a retired prison counselor who worked with convicted sex offenders, said Marc Jacques’ treatment throughout the case makes no sense. He first popped up on law enforcement radar for child sex abuse image distribution years before he was arrested, she said.

“I don’t think we know the depths of his offending yet. I think the biggest problem was the length of time he had to reoffend,” Harrington said. “There was too much time between the time he was caught, to the time he pled guilty, to the time he was sentenced, to the time he was incarcerated. It all added up to too much time available to reoffend. Plus he was around girls the whole time.”

Harrington thinks Marc Jacques used the debate over his child Maelle Jacques to create sympathy and get a light sentence and easy pre-incarceration conditions. While Young’s office sought 78 months in prison for Marc Jacques, he ended up with a 60-month sentence. Harrington thinks the many school and court officials who should have known better caved to the transgender narrative Marc Jacques pushed.

“That was why he got the weaker pre-incarceration conditions,” Harrington said.

Before his sentencing, Marc Jacques wrote a letter to the court pleading for leniency. His argument was that Maelle Jacques needed him to support the process of gender transition. In the letter, Marc Jacques stated Maelle Jacques’ mother does not think gender transition is the right treatment.

“Transgendered teens have the highest rate of suicide in the United States, and I am afraid for Maelle and her path if she is forced to live with her mother and her stepmother in a home where she is not supported and feels unwelcome,” Marc Jacques wrote.

United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire Jane Young

Young said the Probation Department claimed they had Marc Jacques on some of the strictest pre-incarceration conditions available, and that he had been complying with all of those supposedly strict conditions. 

“We considered him somebody who needed to serve a significant period of time in prison, but we also had information about him abiding by those conditions. We are only as good at the information we are given,” Young said.

After a flood of calls from parents like Harrington, the United States Attorney’s Office contacted Probation about concerns that Marc Jacques was a danger. Marc Jacques’ probation officer then checked his monitored internet and found a new, illicit digital storage device was being used. On that device were more images of child sex abuse, according to court records. 

“It’s disturbing and quite frankly unacceptable,” Young said.

Young deferred questions to Lavigne, but said this case highlights the need for greater scrutiny of probationers and their conditions. Without tight conditions and assertive probation officers, prosecutors and judges are left in the dark, Young said.

When parents and players of the Bishop Brady High School soccer team began organizing to oppose a game against a team with a biological male on the roster, they found they faced an opponent off the field as well.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester.

Parents and players began expressing concern about playing against Kearsarge High School and its goalie Maelle Jacques, a male athlete who won the state girls high jump earlier this year.

Word that parents or students might take action prompted Bishop Peter Libasci to huddle with his legal team to craft a statement opposed to a boycott, according to information obtained by NHJournal.

Dave Thibault, Superintendent of Schools for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, relayed the message, telling the girls they ought to play at Kearsarge out of a sense of Christian charity.

“We don’t believe it’s right to just forfeit a game when playing a team with a transgender athlete because we have an issue that is not being handled properly by another party,” Thibault wrote. 

But the girl’s soccer game against Kearsarge High School was canceled after several team members refused to play. When asked about the incident, Tara Bishop, director of communications for the Diocese, attempted to suggest there was no boycott.

“There simply weren’t enough players available for this game,” Bishop said.

And it’s not just the Maelle Jacques’ presence that had parents worried. Jacques’ father, Marc Jaques, is a regular at his child’s games. He’s also a convicted sex offender.

Marc Jacques attending the Hopkinton versus Kearsarge girls high school girls soccer game on October 7, 2024 at Hopkinton High School.

Marc Jaques was convicted last month on federal charges of distributing child sex abuse material. According to court records, Marc Jaques was found in possession of at least 200 child sex abuse images and video files, many of which he uploaded to the social media platform, Kik. 

Marc Jaques had been free pending his report date to prison, most likely in December, when he will begin a five-year sentence. In the meantime, he’d been seen at the stands for Kearsarge girl’s soccer games. 

To make matters worse for worried parents, federal law enforcement arrested Marc Jaques on Friday, however, on an alleged bail violation. He’s due Monday in the United States District Court in Concord for a bail revocation hearing. 

While Thibault’s statement came before he was reportedly made aware of Bishop Brady parents’ concerns about Marc Jaques, his criminal case has been a matter of public record for months.

Neither Bishop Brady Principal Andrea Elliot nor Athletic Director Annie Mattarazzo responded to requests for comment on Friday.

Elliot did try to allay concerns about Marc Jaques’ presence at the game, however. In an email to parents, Elliot said Kearsarge would have a police presence at the game, and at least three school administrators would be on hand as well. Further, according to Elliot’s email, Marc Jaques would not be permitted on the sideline near the benches. He’s supposed to watch the games from his car in the parking lot, according to Elliot.

However, photos provided to NHJournal show Marc Jaques standing behind the benches and near the sideline during an Oct. 7 game played at Hopkinton High School. 

Marc Jacques attending the Kearsarge v Hopkinton girls soccer game.

Critics of male athletes playing on girls’ sports teams note the irony of the current situation in New Hampshire. While Marc Jacques is allowed seemingly free range at the games pending the start of his prison sentence, Kyle Feller, the father of a Bow High School girl’s soccer player, had to get a federal court order to be able to attend his daughter’s games. Feller’s crime was taking part in a silent protest against biological males in girl’s sports.  

Thibualt urged the Bishop Brady girls and their families not to express their views.

“Parents and fans should not protest, even silently, but attend games in goodwill also seeing the deep, inherent dignity of each and every player,” Thibault wrote. 

United States District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe gave a partial win Tuesday to parents suing the Bow School District after being punished over holding a silent demonstration in support of protecting girl’s sports.

Bow High School parent Kyle Fellers can now go to his daughter’s soccer games, but he can’t wear the pink “XX” wrist band that got him and three other parents in trouble last month. Fellers and Anthony “Andy” Foote were slapped with no trespassing orders by Bow school officials for engaging in a silent protest at the Sept. 17 game.

McAuliffe said while there are complex nuances to the case that need to be sorted out, it’s clear the school was violating the First Amendment rights of the four adults at the game.

“You can’t suppress free speech based on whether you think it’s appropriate,” McAuliffe said.

Fellers, Andy Foote, Nicole Foote, and Eldon Rush are seeking the right to keep wearing pink “XX” armbands to games, but McAuliffe said both Bow’s attorney, Brian Cullen, and attorneys for the parents need to show more evidence and legal arguments to make the case. An evidentiary hearing will be set for November.

Cullen and the district argue the school can set limits on free speech in order to protect students from harassment and other harms. But given the facts before him, McAuliffe wasn’t sold that the school showed it was protecting anyone from any real harassment.

“How is wearing a pink wristband harassment?” McAuliffe asked.

Attorney for the parents Endel Kolde, with the nonprofit Institute for Free Speech, said school officials are punishing people who hold unpopular views.

“Everyone knows if they wore rainbow wristbands in support of trans students, or if they wore blue and gold wristbands in support of the war in Ukraine, nothing would have happened,” Kolde said.

The district was on high alert heading into the Sept. 17 game as Bow was set to host Plymouth High School where transgender student Parker Tirrell plays on the girl’s soccer team. Tirrell won an injunction on Sept. 10 against the state law that bans biological males from playing on girl’s teams.

Cullen said Bow had an obligation to keep Tirrell from being harassed by rowdy, crude protests or heckling. But according to Kodel, few people, including Tirrell, knew about the wristbands until school officials confronted the parents and ordered them to remove the offending accessories. The protest coincided with the Plymouth game, but it was in no way directed at Tirrell, Kodel said.

McAuliffe said while there is not enough evidence on the record to determine what, if any, harm was done by the protests, the pink wristbands on their own symbolize a non-bigoted viewpoint that is still open for debate, that girl’s sports is a space for biological girls. 

Even if Tirrell was aware of the wristbands during the Sept. 17 game, it does not automatically rise to the level of an offense that requires the school to step in and curb the constitutional rights of adults.

“Surely, it’s not harmful for a trans student playing on a girl’s team to know there are people who don’t think they should be playing on the girl’s team,” McAuliffe said