Re: Title IX softball case

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


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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