Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - 17-Year-Old Ella Frei on Speaking Out at Her Wisconsin School

00:00:00.480 Recently, our company's softball team lost the big game by one run.

00:00:04.800 Then Dale tried to console us with the quote,

00:00:07.200 winning isn't everything.

00:00:09.060 Well, Dale and I are very different.

00:00:12.740 I get early payout from Bet365.

00:00:14.680 If my team goes up big, I get paid out instantly,

00:00:17.480 even if they blow the lead later.

00:00:19.540 Sound familiar, Dale?

00:00:21.280 Thanks, Bet365.

00:00:22.920 Must be 19 or older, Ontario only.

00:00:24.420 Please play responsibly.

00:00:25.240 If you have questions or concerns about your gambling

00:00:26.660 or the gambling of someone close to you,

00:00:27.720 please go to connexontario.ca and see supply.

00:00:30.000 I don't know what's grooming more than telling your female students it's okay to go to the 1.00

00:00:33.780 bathroom with a male student. You're taking it away from innocent young girls by allowing males 1.00

00:00:38.680 into bathrooms and locker rooms. This week I got to go to Wisconsin and I met a little girl. I say

00:00:45.820 little girl. Gosh, she's 17 years old now. I got to meet her and learn about her story and her

00:00:51.240 experience. Let's just watch a video that she posted over on X that has over 6 million views

00:00:55.900 and over two and a half million likes.

00:00:58.360 My name's Ella Fratt, I'm 17.

00:01:00.080 I do long jump, I play volleyball

00:01:01.660 and I go to school in Richmond, Wisconsin. 1.00

00:01:04.160 When my school let a biological male

00:01:05.960 into the girls' restroom without telling the parents, 0.99

00:01:08.620 I went to the school board with my name attached

00:01:10.940 in my own town.

00:01:12.580 I got bullied for it, harassed online

00:01:14.700 and some of the teachers even encouraged

00:01:16.800 the harassment in the students.

00:01:18.820 I didn't speak up because it was easy.

00:01:20.700 I spoke up because somebody had to.

00:01:25.900 Ella, thank you for joining the Riley Gaines show. Give us a little background on who Ella Fry is.

00:01:33.340 So before all this started, I was kind of just that normal 60 year old student around the high

00:01:39.380 school. I always like to be doing something that's like my friends are like, you never get a break.

00:01:44.000 I'm like, yeah, I always have plans. And so that's kind of the person I was before everything

00:01:49.600 started. Okay. Now walk us through the moment where you decided that you wanted to use your

00:01:56.040 voice in a meaningful and really purposeful way when you decided that you weren't going to stay

00:02:00.520 quiet about a boy in your bathroom. Yeah. So the moment that I knew that somebody's got to speak

00:02:07.520 up was kind of when I came home and all the parents had found out that a male student was

00:02:13.320 using the women's restroom. They were all really upset. And some parents were like,

00:02:17.240 my freshman daughter was like too scared to walk in and i know like that's not okay 14 year olds

00:02:23.420 shouldn't have to go through this especially because high school can be such a scary place

00:02:27.420 and there's a lot of changes happening and so i decided to work with moms for liberty get my

00:02:33.540 speech ready and speak at the school board meeting and i happened to be the first speaker and they

00:02:38.660 saw it and uh one of the ladies from moms for liberty scarlett johnson she took my video and

00:02:44.220 she posted it everywhere. And it went absolutely viral. I went on the news, talked about everything.

00:02:50.640 And then a filed lawsuit was done. Title nine investigation on my school was done.

00:02:56.520 And that was just that was kind of like the beginning of like this whole fight. And then

00:03:01.200 we just attended every school board meeting and kind of work from there.

00:03:05.920 So go back to that first moment that you learned a boy was going to be in your locker room.

00:03:11.140 um was there any sort of forewarning or was the first time you were made aware of this

00:03:16.120 when you literally saw him in your bathroom yeah the they never gave us any warnings they never

00:03:22.560 shared anything because they said that if they like shared his information it would be

00:03:28.220 invading his privacy um so no not them caring about invading privacy as he's literally doing

00:03:35.760 that to you girls i know it was there's a lot of strange things that were being said but yeah we

00:03:41.760 never got told anything and everyone that found out had to walk in the bathroom and see it like

00:03:47.820 some of my friends they walked in they saw the mail and they just walked right out and he's like

00:03:52.360 like why are you leaving like this this is normal like kind of trying to be friendly but it's also

00:03:59.060 uncomfortable like this was our space before yours and there's so many there's single cell

00:04:05.080 bathrooms for you and that's kind of what makes me mad because this whole situation kind of made

00:04:09.880 me mad but when we told them that we were uncomfortable the school board they decided

00:04:14.640 that they would put up maps around the school saying if you were uncomfortable you could use

00:04:18.420 the single stall restrooms located across the school so the boy how many girls did this displace

00:04:27.140 as opposed to the one boy they let use the girls bathrooms how many girls were told to find a

00:04:33.300 single stall bathroom like over 300 girls in my school it just felt like to me they cared more

00:04:39.840 about the feelings of one boy than they did the physical safety of all girls and that's a pretty

00:04:47.260 crazy realization when you think about it and when you can frame it in your mind in that way right

00:04:52.520 they always talk about mental health well they cared more about the one boy's mental health than

00:04:56.940 all of the girls mental health yeah that was definitely not something i wanted to hear

00:05:03.220 especially because i'm like ending my junior year winter sports whatever and when i found out that

00:05:10.080 they wouldn't just move the one student because at the school board meeting we were like well can

00:05:13.820 you adapt the policy like right now can we try to move like the one student to the single cell

00:05:19.560 bathrooms as like a temporary policy and so they had chances like so many chances to finally adapt

00:05:24.940 the policy. And they keep pushing it away. Like last night, there's supposed to be a school board

00:05:29.960 meeting set for August 10. And it was going to be talking about adapting a policy. And the lawyer

00:05:35.720 went on vacation and he comes back and he cancels the whole school board meeting to talk about it.

00:05:40.820 They push it for over five months now, and they won't adapt the policy.

00:05:45.840 So what does that say to you? You know, as someone who's outside looking into a degree,

00:05:51.620 but again, you're the one being affected by these policies. Do you think they're canceling

00:05:55.820 it or pushing it off because they don't want to deal with it mostly? So it just seems, I told

00:06:02.060 Scarlett the other day, it's like childish. Like it's just childish because as a kid, you can go

00:06:07.960 without brushing your teeth. Like you don't want to brush your teeth. You don't want to shower.

00:06:10.840 But as adults, you're kind of expected to brush your teeth every morning and shower. Like you're

00:06:15.340 expected to take care of the kids in the school because you're a part of the school board.

00:06:19.060 You mentioned this lawsuit. What was the mindset in pursuing this? And are there other student

00:06:25.740 plaintiffs on the lawsuit as well? Yeah, there's other students and parents on the lawsuit.

00:06:32.960 I think they quoted something I said on the lawsuit. There's a lot of people backing it up.

00:06:38.900 It was kind of a joint thing. And I remember when we first told everybody, it was like on the news,

00:06:44.220 me and cory were like we were on the news and she said yep and the lawsuits finally filed and it was

00:06:50.560 kind of a boom moment because like the school were never would have thought they're like they're not

00:06:55.400 gonna see what they're not gonna see then we did and now we're just waiting for results back i guess

00:07:00.600 was there ever concern because obviously he was in y'all's bathroom was there ever a concern that

00:07:07.660 he would be on your sports team because you said you played track and field and volleyball was

00:07:12.340 that ever concerned, or at least even addressed by your school, that it was a possibility? 0.73

00:07:17.900 I think in certain states, the WIA covers like female athletes. But as soon as an athlete goes 0.98

00:07:26.180 out of it, out of our state, like, since I'm so close to Minnesota, as soon as you go over to

00:07:31.660 Minnesota, you have a chance of playing a biological male. So I think we're covered for now

00:07:37.320 here in wisconsin but obviously our governor right now he's crazy probably could change anything he

00:07:44.040 wanted but um we're covered for now here and it was never like a thought but i guess there's i

00:07:50.320 know so many other girls near me that have went through it and so many parents like i've seen my

00:07:55.500 daughter play a boy in minnesota because we're like right on the corner of being next to minnesota

00:08:00.740 So after your school board speech went viral, what was the response that you got from peers or from teachers or from the public?

00:08:09.840 Like, did you feel supported or did you feel, you know, the onslaught of hatred that inevitably, I'm sure, came your way?

00:08:18.360 During the speech at the school board, I felt appreciated and heard right away because I was using the bathroom.

00:08:24.700 They're like, hey, there's a lot of people on your side, like there are so many nice ladies.

00:08:28.200 And then when I actually did my speech, so like there was so much clapping.

00:08:33.300 I turned around, they're all standing up and clapping.

00:08:35.560 And I felt like really heard.

00:08:37.520 Like there, I don't think there's that many people not standing up besides the other people

00:08:41.520 that are against me.

00:08:42.360 But I felt heard from day one.

00:08:44.660 And when I started doing more of the Fox News and stuff like that and stuff with Moms for

00:08:49.820 Liberty, I just felt more appreciated and heard because I was getting so many more people,

00:08:54.680 people not even from America, supporting me in a different country, my family, I felt appreciated

00:09:01.600 the whole time. Obviously, there's hate, but there's so much more support that drowns it out.

00:09:07.120 You've said before that you're glad that you've been the one to do it because you can take

00:09:12.820 the negativity. How do you like compose yourself and what really gives you the strength to be able

00:09:19.420 to, to hear things that are, I mean, I believe slanderous and totally unapplicable, um, to you

00:09:26.480 and what you're actually advocating for. I think that one reason why I'm like able to take it is

00:09:33.220 cause I know there's like so many more people on my side than on theirs. So it's like, I don't feel

00:09:39.860 wrong with like anything going on. And like, even last night, this little girl came up to me and

00:09:45.460 she's like, thank you. And it's just like, this is why I keep going. There's so many people backing

00:09:50.620 me up. And I felt really supported last night as well. What role does your faith play in all of

00:09:56.700 this? Because again, for just some of the viewers and people who are listening, being able to see

00:10:03.980 you last night, I saw you had this really awesome Yahweh tattoo on your forearm, and you gave a

00:10:09.080 pretty cool, you know, backstory of what this tattoo means to you. So what does your faith,

00:10:13.980 what role does that play in all of this um from day one I'm not a public speaker so at the school

00:10:20.460 board meeting I was so incredibly nervous and I've been a Christian all my life and right before it

00:10:26.100 I'm like like Yahweh like he's with me God's with me like don't be afraid my grandpa was there he

00:10:31.640 prayed for me he's like God's with you and he's proud of you and after I spoke I think that just

00:10:36.760 really changed my whole perspective on things because something that feels impossible to do

00:10:41.660 i did it and it wasn't as scary as i thought and i just know god was with me the whole time and

00:10:48.220 i always pray that he will like guide my words and stuff because it can be a difficult thing to

00:10:53.400 just speak off of your head and so after that i decided to get a yahweh tattoo on my arm and

00:10:59.320 it's a i like having like christian tattoos because i think they're just such like great

00:11:05.100 conversation starters uh what do you make of it when people say you're too young to to have an

00:11:11.120 opinion to be involved you don't have the wisdom or the experience or the maturity level what's your

00:11:16.160 response I think age doesn't matter age sex race if you look up to the person and you believe in

00:11:24.400 what they believe in it shouldn't matter especially because a lot of people that I looked up to like

00:11:29.220 you Charlie Kirk that there's so many people that are young and they're just so educated

00:11:33.280 and you feel comfortable listening to them and you believe everything they say and so when I hear

00:11:38.940 like you're not old enough well that we're the ones living it though like you guys are i had

00:11:44.780 this grandma she made a comment and she was like what are you afraid of are you afraid of like

00:11:48.220 getting raped and i just know you never had to deal with this you never had to go with this

00:11:53.620 in your day because there was nothing like this so i think it's almost better for the young people

00:11:58.540 to stand up because the other young people can understand what they're going through

00:12:03.060 And at this point, again, many adults have failed you. What about your parents and all this? How supportive have they been? Have they kind of taken a toll as well? Like, again, just with the negativity and the harassment and the response online? What's it been like for your mom and dad?

00:12:22.780 um from the very beginning i think when things got really overwhelming my mom was kind of scared

00:12:28.680 and she was like ella if you want to do this you don't have to and i was like i don't want to keep

00:12:32.880 going and i just never wanted to stop and my parents have been supporting me from day one

00:12:38.380 my dad's kind of like that big tough guy that's like mess with my daughter online like stuff's

00:12:44.160 gonna happen like and i think we have a lot of strange haters in my town that would like share

00:12:51.620 my location of my house and just put nasty comments online that are just in lies and stuff

00:12:59.080 like that and it's just like my mom's definitely a mama bear so if you like kind of tick her off

00:13:05.300 she will go all out to you she'll tell you everything and so I think my mom has been

00:13:11.960 really supportive in a mom perspective like she's that fighter and if you mess with her you're gonna

00:13:17.720 to mess with me. What about your teachers and stuff? Was there ever an instance where you face

00:13:22.200 harassment from a teacher after your first school board meeting?

00:13:28.500 Recently, our company's softball team lost the big game by one run. Then Dale tried to console

00:13:34.240 us with the quote, winning isn't everything. Well, Dale and I are very different. I get early

00:13:41.320 payout from Bet365. If my team goes up big, I get paid out instantly, even if they blow the lead

00:13:46.780 later. Sound familiar, Dale? Thanks, Bet365. Must be 19 or older Ontario only. Please play

00:13:52.800 responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone

00:13:55.400 close to you, please go to connectsontario.ca and see supply. So after the school board meeting,

00:14:01.160 I didn't really get any comments in school. Nothing was in school because nowadays they're

00:14:05.780 too afraid to say it to your face. So what they'll do is we'll sit behind their phone and they'll

00:14:10.060 just write it all in the comment section on a Facebook group. And I think I had a couple

00:14:14.340 teachers that would encourage the harassment within the students in my school that was definitely kind

00:14:20.420 of hurtful because those are some teachers i ran into on the daily and some teachers that like i

00:14:26.420 should be feeling comfortable with and one of the just a side story every time i would use the 0.83

00:14:32.700 single soul restrooms it was in the teacher's lounge because it was closest to the bathroom 0.59

00:14:36.760 or to the lunchroom and so i would go into the teacher's lounge and one of the teachers that 0.99

00:14:41.580 what harassed me online was always right there and I would always run into her and it was just

00:14:46.500 so awkward and I don't know if they realize like I'm see I see these things so do you think like

00:14:53.020 the silent majority is very much still still a thing yeah they're just really quiet and I I mean

00:15:00.920 I don't blame them it can be a scary world because when you adapt yourself with me I guess

00:15:07.080 A hate is guaranteed to come with it. And I think it's a scary thing that that might be why students and teachers don't want to speak up on it, because there's a lot of hate that will come with it.

00:15:19.280 Now, you're going into your senior year, you're about to start school back. Where where does the policy stand now? Is the boy still in school? Do you know what the bathroom situation is going to be when you when you start back later this month?

00:15:33.600 yeah so i don't know if the boy is coming back to school he he left school so he might be coming

00:15:41.060 back um not sure though and at the last school board meeting they just told everyone that they

00:15:47.320 decided to make four more single stall bathrooms don't know who's planning on using those um if

00:15:54.620 it's going to be the couple students or the majority of girls and there's still no policy

00:16:01.280 um as of right now and like i said that one school board meeting on august 10th was supposed

00:16:05.920 to talk about the policy and they canceled it um so no policy stands yet but there is

00:16:11.880 a bill that's having to pass in the school district an anti-grooming bill and i mean i

00:16:19.120 don't know what's grooming more than having your like telling your female students it's okay to

00:16:23.660 go to the bathroom with a male student that seems pretty grooming especially like i had this girl 1.00

00:16:29.320 come up to me last night and she was she said if i ever had like my daughter go into a bathroom and 0.99

00:16:34.820 see like a male's private parts that's like you want your first time your daughter sees stuff

00:16:39.660 like that you want it to be with her husband like it's take especially as a christian like

00:16:44.240 you're supposed to have that with your husband no one else and you're taking it away from 0.85

00:16:49.400 innocent young girls by allowing males into bathrooms and locker rooms

00:16:53.360 all right you guys say spotlight is on campbell university senior linebacker devonye pettis

00:17:00.020 what i love about devonye's story is how he balances being a team captain and carrying a

00:17:05.160 3.6 gpa with giving back to his community every single week whether he's mentoring kids at a

00:17:11.360 local elementary school multiple times a week by the way or helping feed homeless families he uses

00:17:16.080 his platform as a student athlete to make a real difference that's what it's about it's that kind

00:17:21.140 leadership and character that really drives things forward. And YREFI, they get that. They know that

00:17:27.080 your hard work in college is about building a better future for yourself and the people around

00:17:31.380 you. They help you refinance and restructure your private student loans so that you can take

00:17:35.660 control of your financial freedom and your future and focus on what actually matters. You can check

00:17:40.760 them out at YREFI.com today. To learn more, that is Y-R-E-F-Y.com. 100%. The matrimony of marriage

00:17:49.740 is a very sacred thing. Um, and it's, it's interesting you say that because that's how I

00:17:54.700 felt too. When there was a man in my locker room, um, actually the next day, my husband proposed to

00:18:01.040 me, my now husband, my boyfriend at the time would become my fiance the next day. And I thought to

00:18:05.500 myself, like, this is so incredibly violating as someone who wants to be as modest as I possibly

00:18:12.500 can for my future husband. And that it's uncomfortable and that it's embarrassing and

00:18:17.680 that it's humiliating and that you feel shame or guilt or whatever emotion it is when you're

00:18:23.220 undressing next to a man or simultaneously being exposed to a man, or I guess in this case, a boy.

00:18:28.980 And you're telling girls to ignore that gut instinct. And I think that sets a really dangerous

00:18:33.860 precedent for sure. What did you make of it when you see women like Sophie Cunningham take a stand 0.99

00:18:41.460 And, I mean, stand up for you.

00:18:44.140 Like, how does that make you feel?

00:18:46.360 I thought it was so cool.

00:18:48.260 And I know, like, when we, me and Briley, as female athletes, when we went on the news

00:18:52.740 to talk about it, we were both so pumped up because you don't see any female athletes

00:18:57.700 speaking up about this topic.

00:18:59.600 And like I said, it can be, like, controversial almost.

00:19:02.440 And it's, like, guaranteed there's going to be people disagreeing with you.

00:19:06.120 And I'm just, like, so grateful that she's willing to take the hate.

00:19:09.560 like she had sponsorships and money on the line and she did it anyways and that's just really

00:19:14.520 brave of her and i appreciate her and a lot of people are looking up to her now you've said that

00:19:19.940 you want to pursue sports journalism and broadcasting tell me about that and tell me why

00:19:25.660 you want to do that recently our company softball team lost the big game by one run

00:19:31.780 then dale tried to console us with the quote winning isn't everything well dale and i are

00:19:38.660 very different. I get early payout from Bet365. If my team goes up big, I get paid out instantly,

00:19:44.820 even if they blow the lead later. Sound familiar, Dale? Thanks, Bet365. Must be 19 or older Ontario

00:19:51.420 only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or

00:19:54.100 the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connexontario.cat and see supply.

00:19:58.140 From the very beginning, before I did all this public speaking and stuff, I wanted to be on

00:20:03.340 camera I just like always I don't know I always liked being on camera as a kid and I always like

00:20:09.740 talking and I thought it would be so cool to just be like that girl on the sideline talking to the

00:20:15.060 players once they get off the field like and then having maybe your family show up to the games like

00:20:19.860 I feel like it would be such a great opportunity for me and my family and I think it's just it has

00:20:25.320 so many good skills that you need like you need to be comfortable talking I think it would give me

00:20:30.020 so much more confidence as well. And it just, I don't know, I really enjoy watching people like

00:20:35.920 that. And I think I'd really enjoy doing that. Well, what you're doing now is certainly preparing

00:20:40.540 you for it. As we've alluded to, you stood on stage in front of your own hometown with people

00:20:47.960 who, you know, maybe, you know, maybe some that you don't know. What did that moment mean to you

00:20:54.120 after everything that you've been through? I mean, it was standing room only, and you could

00:20:58.960 not have fit another person in there so when you see that again that being your hometown what did

00:21:04.400 that mean to you that it was just like a big warm hug I walked out there I saw everyone I'm like oh

00:21:11.260 my goodness there's a lot of you and it was great because that more people got to hear what I had to

00:21:17.400 say um and I hopefully I hopefully like inspired a bunch of other kids as well because there was

00:21:23.920 like students there. Um, and my family was front row. So I did feel like pretty comfortable talking,

00:21:29.520 but yeah, it was crazy to see how many people were there. I've never would have imagined there's

00:21:34.760 going to be that many people. And I don't, I've never talked in front of that many people.

00:21:39.360 What would you say to another, you know, 16 or 17 year old girl who's seeing the same thing

00:21:45.220 happening at her school, but is still afraid to speak out about it?

00:21:49.500 don't be afraid because there's so many people already supporting what you believe in and i

00:21:56.320 think what happened to me is i was afraid of somebody that i shouldn't be afraid of like

00:22:01.820 they're the ones that got me here in the situation and if nobody speaks out about it it's just going

00:22:07.460 to get worse and it could lead to your sports it could lead to your locker rooms so talk about it

00:22:12.900 now before the issue grows bigger and make sure that your parents are paying attention who they're

00:22:18.380 voting for as like your school board members, as your governor, as you like state Senate, like

00:22:23.380 make sure they're paying attention. Are they having the values that you want? And are they

00:22:28.700 supporting your children? It's a really good point, because there's always emphasis on who's

00:22:33.980 in the Oval Office. And of course, it's important. But I think what has more consequences in your

00:22:39.340 daily life and and the interactions that you have and the things that you come across in your local

00:22:44.460 community is who is being elected locally at the state level, even at the local level,

00:22:49.980 things like school boards.

00:22:51.060 So absolutely, yes.

00:22:53.220 Michael Alfonso was also there last night who's running for Congress in that district.

00:22:58.840 What is his support meant to you?

00:23:01.620 I can say for those who are watching and listening, I'm sure many Fox News listeners, Michael

00:23:09.540 is Rachel Campus Duffy's son-in-law.

00:23:12.420 He's running for Congress, as I said, in that area.

00:23:14.460 has he been you know they're kind of from the beginning for you yeah he's been there since day

00:23:20.560 one and his whole family is just the cutest his wife is the sweetest and he's just nothing but

00:23:26.300 like a kind person and i think that he's just also has that fight and so if he was elected i think

00:23:33.440 he will have that fight for us girls that some people aren't willing to have but he's also

00:23:39.180 willing to be that kind person and i think i just think he's a great person because since day one

00:23:45.160 he's been doing all these parades he's been going to all these events like he cares so much about it

00:23:50.380 and he's so dedicated to it that like i'm sure that he's going to life uh well ella i started

00:23:57.760 off by saying this i'll finish by saying it thank you for your bravery for your courage and for being

00:24:03.980 a hero um courage is contagious and it sounds super cliche right it sounds like yeah yeah

00:24:10.720 whatever but when you live it you know it's true um and so the amount of girls and honestly fully

00:24:17.740 grown men that you've probably inspired in doing what what you have and what you're going to

00:24:22.860 continue to do um it can't be understated so thank you ella thank you so much for having me

00:24:29.360 this is like a dream thank you guys for watching the riley gain show you can subscribe right here

00:24:35.480 we have new episodes every single tuesday and friday at 10 a.m eastern time and we are covering

00:24:40.480 everything from pop culture to politics to deep dives to motherhood and sports all of that and

00:24:45.420 more we want to hear from you though what is it that you want to hear comment down below we can't

00:24:49.200 wait to see you next time

00:24:59.360 recently our company softball team lost the big game by one run then dale tried to console us with

00:25:06.740 the quote winning isn't everything well dale and i are very different i get early payout from bet

00:25:14.160 365 if my team goes up big i get paid out instantly even if they blow the lead later

00:25:19.400 sound familiar dale thanks bet 365 must be 19 or older ontario only please play responsibly if you

00:25:25.620 have questions or concerns about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you please go to

00:25:28.380 at ConnexOntario.ca TNC Supply.

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - August 07, 2026

17-Year-Old Ella Frei on Speaking Out at Her Wisconsin School

Episode Stats

Transcript