Taylor Starling and Kaitlyn Slavin – student athletes at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California – held a live press conference on X Friday hosted California Family Council Outreach Director Sophia Lorey. The two girls shared their perspectives on a recent national controversy that has besieged their community caused by a trans athlete competing on the girls’ cross country team. 

“It was confusing, this has never happened to me before, like I didn’t even think this was going to be happening to me,” Starling said. “It was all just like, surprising, that there was going to be a guy running with the girls.”

Slavin, who is only a freshman, said the experience of having her first year of high school involve the situation is “kind of crazy.”

“Just in high school, having to compete against males when you shouldn’t be is something that shocked me right away,” Slavin said. 

Starling lost her varsity spot to a trans athlete who transferred to the school this past year, and when they wore shirts that read “Save Girls Sports” in protest, they allege school administrators compared the shirts to swastikas. The two girls and their families are now engaged in a lawsuit against the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) over those allegations.

In response, hundreds of their fellow students and hundreds of other residents in the community began wearing the shirts in protest. The shirts became a local, and then national symbol for the protection of female athletes from biological male inclusion in their sports and locker rooms. 

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The ensuing controversy and media coverage of the situation has thrust the two teenage girls, their families and the whole town into the spotlight of the national debate over trans inclusion in women’s sports, which became a hot-button political issue in the 2024 election year. 

And for Starling, Slavin and their classmates, it has come with a wave of attention that they have never experienced, both negative and positive. 

“I’ve had tons of people reach out to me and say ‘thank you so much for what you’re doing and standing up for these women,'” Starling said. “For my friends, a lot of my friends have been shoulder-checked because they were wearing the shirts and a lot of them have been cursed out and called really bad names, and they posted certain stuff on the internet calling people horrible names for wearing these shirts.” 

Slavin, who says she’s found stress relief in sports throughout her life, has only found more stress from sports because of the situation this year. 

“It’s scary that that’s not something that can always be a stress-relieving place if we’re going to have all this going on,” Slavin said. “It affects you mentally and emotionally… It’s so hard to have this all going on.” 

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Starling says the trans athlete has been using the girls’ restroom at the school, however, they haven’t seen the athlete much in the locker room due to frequently missing practices. 

The two girls, and multiple parents who have spoken to Fox News Digital, allege the trans athlete was allowed to compete on varsity despite missing practice every week. 

Starling’s father, Ryan Starling, previously told Fox News Digital that when his daughter and other girls approached the administrators about it, they were told “transgenders have more rights than cisgenders.” The RUSD previously provided a statement to Fox News Digital insisting that its handling of the situation has been in accordance with California state law. 

The two girls then ignited a viral trend in their communities when they showed up to school in November wearing the “Save Girls Sports” shirts. 

And despite being scolded by school administrators for it and having to file a lawsuit, more and more students began to show up each week wearing the shirts, as the school had to alter its dress code and start placing students in detention for wearing them. This didn’t stop the shirts from spreading and growing. It became a weekly ritual for hundreds of students every Wednesday to show up wearing the shirts support of the girls and their messaging, and many of them created viral social media posts on it. 

In early December, the school administrators gave up on their efforts to discipline students for wearing the shirts. Sources told Fox News Digital that more than 400 students have shown up wearing the shirts at a time, and students at other schools in the district have started to wear them to class.

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Students at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California wear t-shirts that read “Save Girls’ Sports” to protest a trans athlete on the cross country team. (Courtesy of Sophia Lorey)

But Slavin, Starling their attorney Julianne Fleischer, said the school administrators have still told the two girls that they aren’t allowed to wear the shirts, during the press conference on Friday. However, they also said more than 400 students at their school have continued to show up wearing the shirts every Wednesday.

The situation culminated in a heated and confrontational event on Dec. 19, when the RUSD held a school board meeting to address the issue. Prior to the meeting, outside the district office, there were competing protests between activists and parents wearing the “Save Girls Sports” shirts and LGBTQ activists. 

Sources, including Ryan Starling, have told Fox News Digital that the LGBTQ activists at the event were harassing the “Save Girls Sports” protesters, and even disrupted a women’s prayer group during a prayer circle prior to the meeting. 

“Members of the pro-LGBTQ groups started heckling and harassing the people in line who were speaking in opposition of their values. Some of these adult protesters were even coming up to the young girls that were going to be speaking and were yelling at them close to their face,” Young Women for America (YWA)’s Inland Empire chapter President Tori Hitchcock told Fox News Digital.

One anonymous parent told Fox News Digital about witnessing a child being bombarded with vulgar insults by pro-trans protesters after the meeting.

Transgender athlete supporter Kyle Harp, left, of Riverside holds the progress  pride flag as “Save Girls Sports” supporters Lori Lopez and her dad Pete Pickering, both of Riverside, listen to the debate as they join the overflow crowd converging outside the Riverside Unified School District meeting Thursday night to debate the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“My 16-year old son and a few others were standing outside after speaking when a group of the LGBTQ community intentionally walked by them pointing at each one of them saying, ‘FU FU FU,’” the anonymous parent said. 

Then, inside the meeting, parents and opposing activists gave impassioned speeches about their thoughts on the situation, with multiple speakers yelling in hysterical tones. The meeting went on for nearly five hours, and included testimony between individuals who opposed trans inclusion in girls’ sports and those who supported it. 

Many of the pro-trans speeches were met with high-pitched cheers and the waiving of LGBTQ pride flags by those in attendance. 

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The RUSD previously provided a statement to Fox News Digital insisting that its handling of the situation has been in accordance with California state law. 

“While these rules were not created by RUSD, the District is committed to complying with the law and CIF regulations. California state law prohibits discrimination of students based on gender, gender identity and gender expression, and specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender in physical education and athletics. The protections we provide to all students are not only aligned with the law but also with our core values which include equity and well-being,” the statement said. 

The RUSD also placed blame for its handling of the situation on officials in Washington D.C., and California’s state capital, Sacramento. They made this statement back in early December, prior to President Donald Trump returning to office. 

“Save Girls Sports” supporters Skylar Crawford, left, and Jadeynn Gallardo, both of Martin Luther King High School, and Tori Hitchcock, right, of Young Women for America, pray among the overflow crowd converging outside the Riverside Unified School District meeting Thursday night to debate the rights of transgender athletes to compete in high school sports Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“As these matters play out in our courts and the media, opposition and protests should be directed at those in a position to affect those laws and policies (including officials in Washington D.C. and Sacramento),” their statement read. 

Trump has pledged to ban trans athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, as a federal bill titled The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act is currently progressing through congress. It has already passed in the House of Representatives.

Until that bill is potentially signed into law, Slavin and Starling are asking their supporters to “pray” for them. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

WARNING: GRAPHIC 

Richard Allen, the Indiana man recently found guilty of brutally murdering two teen girls on a hiking trail in 2017, is asking a Carroll County court to overturn his conviction, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

Allen’s attorneys recently filed a motion asking a Carroll County Circuit Court judge to either vacate his murder convictions or schedule a hearing to discuss four specific issues that they say could prove Allen innocent in the murders of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams.

“It’s natural for a convicted murderer to want his murder conviction overturned,” Áine Cain, co-host of the “Murder Sheet” podcast, which has been covering the Delphi murders for five years, told Fox News Digital. “It’s the job of the defense attorneys and his ability to try to help them accomplish that. … And his appellate team will probably be looking at things more from a legal perspective or his rights violated at any point — was the trial run properly, things like that.”

Cain and co-host Kevin Greenlee, an attorney, attended Allen’s trial and described the prosecution’s performance as “solid.”

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He was sentenced to serve 130 years in prison after a four-week-long trial. Prosecutors said Allen lured the girls, who were hiking together on Feb. 13, 2017, away from the High Monon Trail and into a secluded wooded area where he slit their necks and then covered their bodies with twigs and leaves.

“After the trial, I believe we felt … while there were issues with this investigation and while certainly the misplacement of the tip around Richard Allen was unfortunate, we felt that the investigative team and the prosecutors did a good job proving their case in court based on the evidence and that they successfully convicted the man who murdered Liberty German and Abigail Williams,” Cain said.

DELPHI MURDERS SUSPECT CONFESSED TO KILLING 2 GIRLS ON HIKING TRAIL IN SMALL TOWN, PRISON DOC SAYS

Still, Allen’s attorneys are pointing to four pieces of evidence they say should allow Allen to get his convictions overturned.

White van

During his trial, prosecutors heard from a prison psychologist who testified that Allen, now 52, admitted wanting to sexually assault the girls but was spooked when a van apparently drove by the wooded area of the High Monon Trail in Delphi where he lured and attacked them.

The van’s driver testified during Allen’s trial that he drove by the crime scene around 2:30 p.m. that day — just two minutes before prosecutors said German’s phone turned off at 2:32 p.m. — and arrived at his parents’ home at 2:44 p.m., according to the court documents.

Prosecutors argued that seeing the white van was a detail “only the killer would know” during Allen’s trial.

Allen’s attorneys are now disputing testimony from the van driver, saying “his arrival at ‘about 2:30’ could not have been a detail only the killer would know, because it did not happen.”

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They wrote in their motion that surveillance footage showing what appears to be a white van matching a description of that man’s white van was spotted driving along an access road at 2:44 p.m. that day. They argue the footage shows the van driver could not have passed by the crime scene at 2:30 p.m. and would have arrived at his parents’ home later than 2:44, thus throwing off the prosecution’s timeline.

Delphi police recovered Libby German’s cellphone beneath her body on Feb. 14, 2017. The phone had a 43-second video showing Abigail Williams walking on the Monon High Bridge in Delphi toward German while a man wearing a dark jacket and jeans walks behind her. (FOX Nation)

FBI evidence further shows that van driver’s phone at his parents’ home at 2:50 p.m., Allen’s attorney said.

Other man’s confession

The convicted killer’s defense is also highlighting an alleged confession from a now-deceased man named Ron Logan, who apparently admitted to killing German and Williams to another inmate in prison sometime before May 15, 2017.

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His attorneys said the confession is “newly discovered evidence.”

Snow covers the water of Deer Creek as the Monon High Bridge towers above in Delphi, Indiana, on Feb. 9, 2022. (Nikos Frazier/Journal & Courier/USA TODAY NETWORK)

An investigator’s handwritten notes detailing the other inmate’s retelling of Logan’s confession are included in the recent motion. Logan allegedly told the other inmate that he lured the two victims to a wooded area of the trail and killed them with a boxcutter — a weapon forensic pathologist Dr. Roland Kohr testified during Allen’s trial that the killer may have used, according to FOX 59.

The FBI searched Logan’s home not far from the High Monon Trail on May 17, 2017, according to FOX 59.

“Ron Logan’s confession exculpates Mr. Allen and would probably produce a different result at a retrial.”

— Richard Allen’s attorneys

“Ron Logan’s confession exculpates Mr. Allen and would probably produce a different result at a retrial,” Allen’s attorneys wrote in their motion. “Accordingly, the Court should either vacate Mr. Allen’s convictions or set this motion for a hearing.”

Supt. Doug Carter of the Indiana State Police speaks during a press conference on an update on the Delphi murders investigation at the Canal Center in Delphi, Indiana, on April 22, 2019. (Nikos Frazier/Journal & Courier/USA TODAY NETWORK)

Logan died in 2022.

Prison transfer

Allen’s attorneys further argue that the then-suspect was “whisked away” from Carroll County Jail to an Indiana Department of Corrections facility in 2022 without a proper safekeeping proceeding — the legal process for moving an inmate from one detention center to another.

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“This should be particularly disturbing because, had he been given the opportunity to do so, Mr. Allen had an absolute personal right to refuse the transfer to the Department’s custody,” his attorneys wrote in the Monday motion.

Delphi murder suspect Richard Allen was improperly transferred from Carroll County Jail to an Indiana Department of Corrections facility, his lawyers argue. (FOX 59 Indianapolis )

They further say Allen “had no opportunity to exercise his right to refuse the transfer to the Indiana Department of Corrections’ custody or to make any of the objections set out above to the entire course of the proceeding” because he and his counsel “had no notice of the legal skullduggery that would land him in solitary confinement” for 23 months before his trial.

Headphone jack on German’s phone

Near the conclusion of Allen’s trial, the defense presented testimony from a former FBI forensic expert who said it appeared as though someone plugged headphones into German’s phone, which was discovered near the girls’ bodies on Feb. 14, at 5:45 p.m on Feb. 13, hours after they were last seen. 

The headphones were then removed from the phone at 10:32, Stacey Eldridge testified, presenting a possible challenge to the prosecution’s timeline that they were killed around 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 13, according to FOX 59.

Grainy cellphone video footage and a sketch of a prime suspect in the murder of Delphi girls Abigail Williams and Liberty German on the office wall of Tobe Leazenby, Sheriff of Carroll County, Indiana. (Robert Scheer/IndyStar/USA TODAY NETWORK)

An expert presented by the state testified at trial that the headphone evidence may have been the result of water or dirt getting into the headphone jack, and Allen’s attorneys say they never got a chance to dispute that testimony in court.

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“If Ms. Eldridge’s actual expert opinion that wired headphones were plugged into L.G.’s auxiliary port at 5:44 p.m. on February 13, 2017, and unplugged almost 5 hours later were credited by a jury, the State’s narrative is impossible,” the motion states. “Someone other than Richard Allen was handling L.G.’s phone multiple times long after the State contended Mr. Allen left the scene before 4:00 p.m. on February 13, 2017.”

Prosecutors pointed to various evidence that placed Allen at the scene at the time of the crime, including an unspent bullet at the crime scene matching a firearm recovered from Allen’s home in 2022, as well as the dozens of confessions he made in prison, as FOX 59 Indianapolis reported at the time.

On Feb. 14, 2017, Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were killed while biking on trails near Delphi, Indiana, about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis. (Indiana State Police)

Allen’s defense leaned largely on expert analysis showing Allen’s unhealthy mental state after his 2022 arrest, which took the Delphi community as a surprise at the time. Allen had been a longtime CVS employee in the small Indiana town when police took him into custody five years after the murders.

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For the first time since the girls were reported missing, jurors got to watch 43 seconds of the crucial video in court on Oct. 22. The video shows German and Williams walking with an unknown man wearing a hat and blue utility jacket who has become known over the last five years as “Bridge Guy.” German captured the video at 2:13 p.m., less than 25 minutes after she and Williams’ family members dropped them off at the trail.

“Guys, down the hill,” the man can be heard saying to the girls in the video.

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Cain, who has a book about the Delphi murders called “Shadow of the Bridge” set to be published in August, and Greenlee believe Allen’s confessions played in court were believable. 

“I think it is worth noting that his voice as he spoke to them, it sounded identical to the voice on the recording of ‘Bridge Guy’ saying ‘down the hill,’” Cain said. “I’m not sure you could do a scientifically valid test, but the reactions of everyone in that courtroom, or almost everyone in the courtroom, were: This is the same man.'”

Allen’s attorneys did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital.

A documentary about bridging the political divide in one of the most hotly contested battleground counties in the United States debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this week, leading some to conclude that the historically liberal festival is moving toward the center. 

“One of the things that is fascinating about ‘Bucks County, USA’ being chosen as an official selection at Sundance is it appears, in the era of Trump being re-elected, the well-known left-leaning Sundance Film Festival is moving to the middle,” Paul Martino said. “There is a new openness to dialogue,” 

Martino, the founder of Bullpen Capital, told Fox News Digital about the documentary series “Bucks County, USA” being screened at Sundance, a Utah festival known for screening films promoting liberal causes and being a place for anti-Trump demonstrations.

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Martino, who is featured in the film, told Fox News Digital that the five-part docuseries is “all about the political divisions that happen in the United States focused on where I live, Bucks County, USA.”

“It is about all of the post-COVID policies and all of the things that happened at the school board level once a lot of the parents’ rights movement started, and the film dives into a lot of detail about the political division that happened, and it focuses, ironically, on the friendship of my daughter and her best friend, who is what I would describe as my political rival’s daughter,” Martino explained. 

Martino, a conservative, told Fox News Digital walking around Sundance was a “fascinating” experience and that he encountered many people who seemed to be open to the movie’s message of listening to the other side.

“Obviously, it is a rather left-leaning crowd in general. But even the people behind Sundance, the people who pick the films this year, said that they felt this film, ‘Bucks County, USA,’ was very important because it was in a Trump re-elected era,” Martino said. 

“Understanding and speaking to the other side and understanding who the other side is is important.

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Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Evan Vucci/AP)

“One of the amazing stories told by one of the filmmakers at Sundance was there’s a guy sitting next to me in a MAGA hat who I would have never talked to on the plane had I not made this movie and realized he had a lot to say to me. And the fact that this film affected even the filmmakers, I think, is a really interesting and important lesson for the rest of the country.”

While many people at Sundance were receptive to the film, Martino told Fox News Digital he did encounter some opposition from people at a question-and-answer session after the screening. 

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The marquee of the Egyptian Theatre during the Sundance Film Festival Jan. 28, 2020, in Park City, Utah.  (AP/Arthur Mola/Invision)

“I would say one of the only disappointments of the experience was I felt that some people in the crowd, you know, it’s an honor to be in the Q&A at the end of the series and, look, we had everybody up there. We had people who really don’t like each other, who disagree vehemently, and I think it was lost on the audience that all of us were standing there,” Martino said. 

“The fact that we all agreed to be part of this, the fact that we were all there and I got asked a question or two that were directed in my direction that I felt were a little bit inflammatory and I kind of chuckled to myself thinking, ‘Did you just watch the movie? And did you just see the fact that we’re all here? Maybe you missed a little something there.'”

Move over, Crocs. There’s a new contender in the world of unconventional footwear. 

Syntilay, a startup with a sparkle in its eye and artificial intelligence on its mind, has just unveiled what it claims to be the world’s first entirely AI-designed and 3D-printed shoe. 

This futuristic footwear is turning heads and raising eyebrows in equal measure.

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The birth of Syntilay

Syntilay, whose name is derived from “scintillate” (meaning to sparkle), is the brainchild of 25-year-old entrepreneur Ben Weiss. The company’s journey from concept to creation is as unique as the shoes themselves. Using Midjourney AI, they generated the basic shape, which was then sketched by an artist. This sketch was transformed into a 3D model using Vizcom AI, and finally, generative AI added the distinctive patterns and textures. 

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Ben tells CyberGuy, “AI designing shoes is going to disrupt the category because of the incredible speed to go to market. New releases for traditionally made shoes take around 18 months for a model to release, with AI making them and 3D printing, that is now only a few months.”

AI-designed, 3D-printed shoe (Syntilay)

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Customization meets comfort

One of Syntilay’s standout features is its commitment to personalized comfort. Before you can slip your feet into these futuristic slides, you’ll need to scan your feet using your smartphone. This ensures a custom fit for each customer, even accommodating those with different-sized feet. Available in five colors – blue, black, red, beige and orange – these shoes are priced at a not-so-modest $149.99 per pair.

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Before you can slip your feet into these futuristic slides, you’ll need to scan your feet using your smartphone. (Syntilay)

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The grand plan

While Syntilay is pushing the boundaries of shoe design, they’ve also got some serious old-school cred in their corner. Joe Foster, the co-founder of Reebok, is lending his expertise to the project. With Foster’s experience in building a $4 billion shoe empire, Syntilay is hoping to make big strides in the footwear market. Syntilay’s ambitions extend far beyond selling a few thousand pairs of quirky slides. 

They’re eyeing the $85.8 billion U.S. footwear market, with plans to open their platform to brands and content creators. This could potentially allow influencers and brands to design and sell their own AI-created footwear, tapping into a market that has traditionally been difficult for non-shoe companies to crack.

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AI-designed, 3D-printed shoe (Syntilay)

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Sustainability steps

In an age where environmental concerns are at the forefront, Syntilay is putting its best foot forward. The shoes are 100% recyclable, with customers able to return them at the end of their life to be transformed into new products. This closed-loop system could potentially revolutionize the footwear industry’s approach to sustainability.

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AI-designed, 3D-printed shoe being packaged for shipment (Zellerfeld)

Kurt’s key takeaways

Whether Syntilay becomes the next Crocs or fades into obscurity remains to be seen. However, their innovative approach to design and manufacturing is undoubtedly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in footwear. As AI and 3D printing technologies continue to evolve, we may be witnessing the first steps towards a revolution in how we design, produce and consume fashion.

What do you think? Are AI-designed, 3D-printed shoes the future of footwear or just a passing fad? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

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