The Wilson High School women gymnastics lawsuit went to trial yesterday in a Los Angeles courtroom, and it’s already getting interesting.

According to the Press-Telegram’s Kevin Butler, Wilson Co-Principal Lewis Kerns said on the stand that one of the reasons the school planned to change the women’s gymnastics room into a fitness center–and relocate the gymnasts elsewhere–was to get Wilson ready for a “looming state requirement that will force high school students who fail a state fitness test to continue taking PE classes until they pass the exam.”

Wowee. Are state fitness requirements at least partly to blame for this situation? That seems to be what Kerns is saying.

Kerns also said the school–which is in court under a Title IX lawsuit, a federal law prohibiting discrimination against female athletes in education programs–had no intention of killing the gymnastics program.

But Wilson Girls Athletic Director Fredia Rhodes disputed that on the stand yesterday, saying she was told that the gymnastics program “would not exist in three years,” according to the P-T.

Tags: , California, gymnastics lawsuit, Long Beach, press telegram, Southern California, state PE requirements, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, Title IX, Wilson Co-Principal Lewis Kerns, Wilson Girls Athletic Director Fredia Rhodes, Wilson High School