[EDEQUITY] RE: Title IX and Football

From: Dempsey or Brown (dempsy@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu May 18 2000 - 11:27:28 EDT

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    Amber wrote, "Linda is patently mistaken in saying that Title IX does
    not permit women to participate on football teams. There is NO
    exemption for "contact sports" such as football or wrestling, and there
    is no legal rule against women competing in those sports." I generally
    disagree with Amber and, while there is a difference between saying,
    "that Title IX does not permit women to participate on football teams."
    It is hard to stretch the language to include, "There is NO exemption
    for "contact sports" such as football or wrestling." Many state laws, I
    agree, do not contain the contact sport language, but Title IX and the
    Policy Interpretation by OCR is ignored in the post.

    The meaning seems to be clear when OCR's own Athletic Investigators
    Handbook on page 27 says, "Title IX regulation at 34 C.F.R Part
    106.41(b) differentiates between contact and non-contact sports. The
    Policy Interpretation clarifies that where an institution offers a team
    in a contact sport for members of one sex, it must offer a team for
    members of the other sex when: 1) opportunities for members of the
    excluded sex have historically been limited, and (2) there is sufficient
    interest and ability to sustain a viable team and a reasonable
    intercollegiate [or interscholastic] competition." Even clearer is:
    "There is NO exemption for "contact sports" such as football or
    wrestling."

    34 CFR at Sec. 106.41 Athletics.
    (b) Separate teams. Notwithstanding the requirements of paragraph (a)
    of this section, a recipient may operate or sponsor separate teams for
    members of each sex where selection for such teams is based upon
    competitive skill or the activity involved is a contact sport. However,
    where a recipient operates or sponsors a team in a particular sport for
    members of one sex but operates or sponsors no such team for members of
    the other sex, and athletic opportunities for members of that sex have
    previously been limited, members of the excluded sex must be allowed to
    try-out for the team offered unless the sport involved is a contact
    sport. For the purposes of this part, contact sports include boxing,
    wrestling, rugby, ice hockey, football, basketball and other sports the
    purpose or major activity of which involves bodily contact. (emphasis
    supplied)

    Nuff said.
    Herb Dempsey
    dempsy@ix.netcom.com



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