Ella Frei, 17 years old: "I’m glad I’m the one that’s doing it because I can take it."

State law and overwhelming public support of sex-based rights are not enough. It still requires the courage to speak out

New Richmond, Wisconsin is a relatively conservative town, so it caught my attention when I heard a news report this past winter of a heated school board meeting over a boy who had been allowed by the school to use girls’ restrooms. Of course, this is an everyday occurrence in neighboring Minnesota, where “girls’” bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports are merely state-facilitated lies, but Wisconsin schools and sports recognize sex-based sports and restrooms. The New Richmond School District quietly and unilaterally violated state and federal law to allow one male student to use the girls’ restrooms.

This is a textbook example of one gender activist capturing an entire organization. Though it violated state and federal law. Though the majority of the school board, the students, the parents, and the community supported single-sex bathrooms. That wasn’t enough to counter a tiny number of trans zealots. It took courage. Someone had to speak out and put their name to it.

New Richmond High School junior Ella Frei was that person. She spoke out at a school board meeting, on social media, on podcasts and news reports. I spoke with Ella by phone.

The Female Category: Was there a specific incident that made you want to speak out publicly?

Ella Frei: My school had a bathroom policy that they were allowing a biological boy into the women’s restroom and that’s when I first went on Moms for Liberty, talking about it, and there was a protest in my town about it, because I thought, that’s not ok, there shouldn’t be a boy in the women’s restroom. And the school board wasn’t addressing it. They were putting up signs, maps to where the single-stall bathrooms were, for girls who were uncomfortable sharing their bathroom with a boy. And that’s when I went on the internet. A couple days ago I was on a podcast with Scarlett Johnson and Lindsey [Moms for Liberty hosts] and somehow AB Hernandez came up. I do long jump in my small town—I’m not very good—but if I had to go against a male I don’t know what I would do. That’s a crazy position to be put in. So, there’s not anything personal in sports in my school, but with the bathroom stuff ging on at my school—this is where it starts. It starts with the bathroom, then it goes to the locker rooms, then it goes to sports programs.

TFC: I just looked up Wisconsin Iinterscholastic Atheletic Association and saw that, as of February 2025, they banned trans girls—boys—from girls sports. Maybe you don’t know this, but why would your school then allow boys in the girls’ bathrooms? It’s against Wisconsin state law.

Ella: That’s the question everyone was wondering because they’re not complying with Title IX. The US Department of Education filed an investigation into the school.

TFC: When did you become aware a boy was using the girls’ restroom? Wait, are you a senior?

Ella Frei: I just finished my junior year. About halfway into my junior year. There’s a school board meeting in the winter where it was hot. A bunch of parents found out a boy was using the girls’ restroom, everyone was concerned, and that’s where I did a speech that Scarlett from Moms for Liberty posted and it went viral. And that’s when the Department of Education said they were going to investigate my school.

TFC: There was no announcement by the school about this bathroom policy? This boy just started using the girls’ bathroom?

Ella: Yeah, that’s why the parents were mad. They never sent out an email or anything.

TFC: To your knowledge, that boy has not used the girls’ locker room or been in girls’ sports?

Ella: No, not yet.

TFC: What has been the reaction among other students to your speaking out and protests about the boy in the girls’ bathroom?

Ella: Some students are against everything. They started a Facebook page against Moms for Liberty, and they’ve been harassing me, bullying me online, as well as some teachers who were engaging in that. But there’s also a huge group who are really proud of what I did. I have people come up to me every day; I was at a track meet recently where someone came up to me and said, I heard what you did at your school, that’s really cool. And I had a lot of friends that were there at the school board meeting who were too scared to speak up but were really glad that I did. We were too scared to even tell anyone about the boy in the girls’ restroom because we thought there would be retaliation. So a large number of people agree with me.

TFC: So they are aware this is a Title IX violation? They do know about Title IX rights?

Ella: Yeah.

TFC: Adults, too, are afraid to talk about this it seems. Why do you think there is this fear of saying something so obvious as a boy should not be in girls’ bathrooms? Where is this fear coming from?

Ella: Nobody wants a big target on their back or to be viewed differently publicly. Like at that school board meeting, I thought, once I do this, everyone’s gonna know what I think. I’m the face of it. I’m glad that I’m the one that’s doing it because I can take it.

TFC: Why is that? Why are you the one to take it?

Ella: For me, I would rather have it stop now than down the line. I think there’s a lot of girls that, I don’t want them to come into high school and have to deal with this. And also, I have so many people on my side, saying You got this. And these younger girls can have someone to look up to, and feel safe in our school. Hopefully they’ll never have to say, Oh I can’t go in there because there’s a boy in there.

TFC: Correct me if I’m wrong, but New Richmond seems like a fairly conservative town. It strikes me that, even in this town where probably 90 percent, or more, of the people believe boys should not be in girls’ restrooms, well, first, it’s strange to me that this policy was made in the first place, and, second, that people would be afraid to say anything about it.

Ella: What I think it boils down to is there was one person on the school board who disagreed with everything, and he was kind of the president of the school board..

TFC: When you say he disagreed with everything, what do you mean by that?

Ella: Well, someone recommended they do a temporary single-stall restroom for the trans student. And that was completely denied, immediately [by the school board]. It was mostly this one person who shut that idea down. I think we let the wrong people have power over the decision of the girls. Like our needs were getting pushed out of the way, and when we expressed how we felt, they didn’t care.

TFC: How was your speech, and any other girls who spoke at the meeting, how was that received by the school board?

Ella: It was kind of mixed. There were a lot of parents agreeing, applauding girls who did speak up, but there was a group of kids and their parents who started yelling and getting crazy, and the whole board sitting up front, they didn’t even care. They wouldn’t hold eye contact or anything. They did this to the kids and couldn’t even look at us. They knew what they were doing was wrong but they didn’t care.

TFC: Have you met with the principal, or had any feedback from the principal?

Ella: Not really. The principal is super nice but she didn’t really have a say in everything that was going on. It was the school board taking control.

TFC: What was the reaction on social media? You mentioned you had received some bullying.

Ella: After the Moms for Liberty podcast, it was definitely crazy. There were kids hating on me publicly online, and in school they’d talk to other kids, but would never say it to my face. That’s where the whole online thing comes in—they’re braver online than in person I guess.

TFC: The kids who think the boy deserves to be in the girls’ bathroom—what is their argument for it?

Ella: They say you need to be welcoming, trans kids are not scary. It’s not like we were scared, we were just uncomfortable. They said we need to embrace it, so they can be who they are. If they say they’re a girl, then they’re actually a girl. Just a bunch of brainwashing really.

TFC: What is your sense of the proportion of kids in your school who feel girls have a right to single-sex bathrooms? Is this a 50/50 thing? Half for it, half against?

Ella: I would say 90 percent are with girls’ single-sex bathrooms, and 10 percent are against, but they’re just really loud about their opinions.

TFC: I’m going back to what you said, that you feel like you are the one to speak out because you “can take it.” The public criticism. That you’re strong enough. How did you come to this strong feeling that girls deserve single-sex spaces? I think a lot of kids your age—how old are you?

Ella: I just turned 17.

TFC: A lot of kids your age have been taught since kindergarten that gender identity is a fact, that it’s bigoted or unkind for girls to have single-sex restrooms and sports. Where did this strong idea about girls’ rights come from?

Ella: I’m a Christian, and on top of going to school, I’m going to church, learning about Adam and Eve, and God made you who you are with purpose, so that’s also where my strong opinions came from. But also, I care about safe spaces in public places. I want to really make my opinion known, like, you don’t have to agree with everything that’s being put out there. You don’t have to share the bathroom with a boy. My confidence is growing. When I was at the school board meeting, that was my first time public speaking. I was so nervous. I wanted to cry, I was shaking so bad. But I kept getting more confident. It seemed like a natural thing to do.

TFC: Has anything changed with regard to your school’s bathroom policy?

Ella: Not at our school, but the whole announcement of the school getting investigated was kind of a big thing. That’s obviously a process that takes a long time, but we brought the problem to light, so maybe their investigation will be easier than it was going to be. Our school has been publicized a lot, on social media.

TFC: Do you think that has brought pressure on the school to address girls’ concerns?

Ella: Yeah, I think so. There was something huge that happened—we had a school board election and a woman, Christi Westlund, won, by a lot. And the former president of the school board, the one who was trying to spread his Minnesota beliefs on us, is out. We got a new school board president that agrees with no boys in the girls’ bathroom.

TFC: Do you know if the boy is still using the girls’ bathroom?

Ella: No [he’s not]. When he got into the public eye and everyone started finding out, I think he started doing online school. It’s not the outcome you want because he is our peer. If they just had a policy for him from the very beginning, instead of for us. Like have him go to the single-stall bathroom instead of all the girls.

TFC: Has the school board said they will review the bathroom policy?

Ella: We can only hope.