Re: Title IX softball case

From: edequity@phoenix.edc.org
Date: Thu Apr 20 2000 - 17:52:17 EDT

  • Next message: edequity@phoenix.edc.org: "Re: Title IX softball case"

    In further response.....Contrary to your statement, "proportionality" is
    NOT
    the only "active" standard to test Title IX compliance. Most high schools
    defend Title IX cases on the THIRD prong.....that girls in their community
    are
    not interested in new sports (e.g., ice hockey in Alabama or field hockey
    in
    Nebraska).

    You further miss the point in that athletics is UNIQUE in that it is the
    only
    educational program that is sex segregated. It is not like employment or
    physics in which theoretically males and females can compete for the same
    job
    or classroom seat. The school predetermines how many opportunities it will
    offer to boys and how many it will offer to girls by deciding which sports
    it
    will offer for each sex. By providing 200 opportunities for boys and only
    100
    opportunities for girls, it decides ---- regardless of interest --- how to
    allocate its resources between the sexes.

    I emphasize that there is nothing genetic or inherent in athletic interest
    or
    benefits. Girls can benefit as much as boys. Think of it this
    way.....boys
    started the race 150 years ago and are running on the back stretch. Girls
    were
    let into the race just 25 years ago and thus haven't even reached the first
    turn yet. So....is it the girls' fault that they are 300 yards behind when
    they were not allowed to start at the same time? Further, most boys have
    the
    benefit of fathers and grandfathers who played sports to teach them and
    work
    with them. How many girls before 1990 had mothers and grandmothers to
    teach
    them and foster their interests?

    Finally, study after study shows that girls have the same or even MORE
    interest
    in sports than boys up to age 12.....coincidentally (???) the age at which
    boys
    start to taunt girls who are better at sports than they are and when girls
    are
    lectured that they should stop being "tomboys" and pursue more sedate
    activities like sewing. No parent would give 7 cookies to his/her son but
    only
    3 cookies to his daughter of comparable age. So why do we allow public
    schools
    to do it every day......and allow the boy to lecture the girl that she is
    "lucky" to get 3, because she shouldn't like cookies in the first place????
    Kristen Galles, Equity Legal
    Kristen Galles <kgalles@erols.com>



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