February 16, 2012: On February 9, in a "huge victory" for girls' athletics, two former high school softball players in San Diego won a class action Title IX lawsuit; Federal District Court Judge James Lorenz found Sweetwater Unified High School District (SUHSD) discriminated against girls athletics by not providing adequate facilities for a girl's softball team at Castle Park High School (CPHS) -- and retaliated by firing the team's coach when the players and their parents complained, reports the Women's Law Center's Just Play Now blog on gender equity in athletics.
The case is the first IX lawsuit in California history to go to trial. Full decision can be read here. And here.
Photo: The CPHS softball field in 2007 shortly after the suit was filed. (Nancee Lewis) The field was renovated in 2009, following a summary judgment on one count in the suit. The class action suit has proved expensive for SUHSD, which had to boost its legal services budget by $800,000 in February 2011 to cover the costs of litigation, according to Ashley Mcgone of the San Diego Union Tribune.
(At left, Veronica Ollier, one of the five Latina softball players from the Chula Vista area who initiated the lawuit. Ollier was Pacific Coast Conference player of the year and later played college ball in North Carolina.)
As the Feminist News Wire reports:
The 1972 Education Amendment's Title IX prohibits discrimination in education, including athletics, based on sex. "Title IX is almost 40 years old, yet we still see this type of blatant discrimination against young girls all across the country," said Elizabeth Kristen of The Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, which filed the case in 2007, along with the California Women's Law Center and Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips, LLP.
The Feminist Majority Foundation is currently working to rescind the 2006 Bush-era Title IX regulations that make it significantly easier to allow single-sex classrooms in public schools.
As Brent Schrotenboer reported in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
In "Ollier v. Sweetwater Union High School, et al." Federal District Court Judge M. James Lorenz concluded that SUHSD unfairly favored the boy's sports over the girls' in athletic facilities, resources and opportunities at CPHS; he also found the administration retaliated by firing the softball coach [Chris Martinez] after parents complained about the inequities....
Lorenz made a summary judgment against the district in 2009, ruling then that there were unequal participation opportunities in violation of Title IX. He ruled against the district Thursday on the other two Title IX claims in the suit: unequal treatment and benefits to females at CPHS, plus retaliation.
According to the California Women’s Law Center:
Although Title IX cases filed on the college level are highly publicized, discrimination is just as likely to occur at the K-12 level. Discrimination in elementary and high schools often goes unchecked because younger athletes and their parents may be unaware that anti-discrimination laws apply to public educational institutions.
The lawsuit was filed in 2007 on behalf of the plaintiffs, Veronica Ollier and Naudia Rangel, by the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, California Women’s Law Center, and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, after repeated requests by parents to improve the condition of the softball field at CPHS; the field was so dilapidated that rutting and the hard-packed ground made it unsafe for players and spectators and put the softball team at a disadvantage in competitions, according to Sue Enquist, who inspected the site in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and testified at the 10 day bench trial held in 2010.
Judge Lorenz made a summary judgement against the district in 2009, ruling that there were unequal participation opportunities. This latest ruling addresses the two other Title IX claims: unequal treatment and benefits to females at CPHS, and retaliation for firing the coach.
In response to Thursday’s ruling, the district issued a statement Friday from SHUSD Superintendent Edward Brand.
“The Sweetwater district is in the process of analyzing the ruling, but in all likelihood we will be appealing the ruling,” the statement said. “We find that the standard for which girls’ sports facilities outlined in this ruling is not applicable to high school sports — it aligns with university-level sports.”
Judge Lorenz acknowledged that SUHSD has made “some improvements to facilities” but that “the inequalities demonstrated at trial should have been rectified years ago by the district. The girls’ softball team has been treated as vastly inferior to the boys’ baseball team, which it is not.”
Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.
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