Head gymnastics coach Paula Shaibani at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School said she was “blindsided” when Montgomery County (Md.) School System’s athletics department informed her that it would be ending its sponsorship of girls’ gymnastics next school year. Now, Shaibani and her student-athletes are pushing back.
According to WTOP, girls’ gymnastics had grown 27% from the 2024 to 2025 school years, and the school system reported about 126 total student-athletes split between seven schools.
Yet, in the face of a growing program, Montgomery County Schools chose to end its sponsorship of the program.
Following that announcement last week, Shaibani and her student-athletes have collected over 1,500 signatures on a petition to reinstate gymnastics as an interscholastic sport.
On the petition website, athletes wrote, “Gymnastics is unique among high school sports - highly technical, creative, woman-focused. In a world where women's sports are largely marginalized, gymnastics is a rare example where female athletes shine. Montgomery County is trying to take that away from these girls, unilaterally and behind closed doors, in a vote that was 73% male athletic director voters.”
Shaibani recalled a conversation with athletics department leadership in spring 2025, when athletics director Jeffery Sullivan told her that the school was considering ending the program, but at that time he promised “community forums” to include school officials, parents, student-athletes and coaches. Those forums were never held and Shaibani received no other updates on the status of the program until February.
“We got blindsided,” said Shaibani. “I wish I had something more real to hold out hope for.”
At a February school board meeting, board members — along with Shaibani, student-athletes and parents — pressed MCS for answers regarding the decision to cut the program. Several school board members asked for enrollment data and proof of the pain points the sport has allegedly been facing.
“The more that the petition grows, the more that the county can see that, yes, even though there is this group of selfish individuals in power, there is a larger community that does care about gymnastics and does want to see justice be served and these girls to be done right by,” Shaibani said.
