One day Tom Brady climbed into a plane with his camera, flew over the school district's athletic fields, and came back with photos that proved the lush grass and other resources the boys used were in sharp contrast to the dusty, parched dirt areas where the girls had to play.
Published: January 10, 2000
Tom Brady has two daughters, a pilot's license and the mind of an analyst-but never before had those three elements of his life merged as effectively as they did nearly three years ago. From 1997 to 1999, Brady's fact-finding mission to prove disparities between the boys' and girls' athletic program at his older daughter's high school turned into the largest single investigation of a school district for violations of Title IX in the history of the San Francisco Office for Civil Rights.
After hearing "copious rumors" in 1995 that female student-athletes at Helix High School in La Mesa, Calif., were not receiving equal treatment, Brady resolved to find out if there was any truth to the rumors. Throughout the 1996-1997 school year, he discovered that not only were the rumors true, but also that the situation was worse than he had originally thought. Brady suspected that the school might not be in compliance with Title IX, the landmark federal law passed in 1972 that forbids discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally-funded educational institution.
It would be more than a year before Brady climbed into a plane with his camera and captured aerial shots of Grossmont school district's high school athletic facilities, and more than two years before an investigative team from the San Francisco OCR launched a week-long analysis of the district's facilities, but Brady had already assumed a role as a tireless activist. Over two years, six airplane flights, one 80-page report and $6,000 later, Grossmont school district and the federal OCR reached a voluntary resolution to upgrade girls' teams' facilities in the district, due largely to the efforts of Tom Brady's advocacy.
In the BeginningLa Mesa is a small community of 55,000 people in San Diego County, Calif., just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Helix High School is one of 10 high schools in the Grossmont School District, a district that has had three different administrations and two different school boards in the past four years. When Brady's daughter Meghan was a freshman at Helix, the softball team was booted off its field so that the junior varsity baseball team could use it. The girls began a struggle to share a field with La Mesa American Little League, and Brady began a long process of gathering data to support his theory that girls at Helix High were not receiving equal treatment in sports.
Like many parents across the country, Brady was troubled by the sharp contrast that he found between the resources available to boys' teams and those available to girls' teams. He could not ignore the glaring differences between the manicured fields of the baseball facility and the dusty, unkempt softball field where the spaces between clumps of grass were more plentiful than the grass itself. Nor could he dismiss the reasoning of Helix's athletic department for why it removed the girls' program from the field in order to let the j.v. boys' baseball team play. According to the department, it was more logical to focus on the development of the baseball team than the softball team because girls did not (at that time) have any professional future in softball. "High school is not a technical school," Brady said, and he emphasized that the educational value of participating on a team far outweighed any arguments in favor of cultivating a team of future professional baseball or softball players.
By July 1997, Brady realized that what he had thought was a gender-equity problem unique to Helix was actually a district-wide problem that demanded immediate attention. This launched the beginning of nearly three years of research, meetings with athletic administrators, district administrators and OCR representatives. To Brady, it was a necessary struggle. "It wasn't fun," he said, "but it was something that needed to be done to get the old school out and reality in."
Strategies for SuccessBeing an advocate is like being a detective. The advocate must determine the "who, what, where, when and how" of the situation-but never the "why." "It's very important to collect data to support your theory," Brady explained. "You know that a school is discriminating against girls, but how are they doing it?"
The "how" of a situation can be the most convincing component of the advocate's theory. Being an effective advocate means being able to present your theory-in this case, that the high school was discriminating against female athletes-through facts, figures and other objective data. "The 'why' is never answered," Brady said. "But you can collect data, facts and events that point to the 'why' without saying 'why.' If you editorialize your point too much, you are going to lose."
"The key to success," Brady said, "is to find out how the opposition works and what their weak spots are." This includes doing research and collecting data to support your claim.
For Brady, the sleuthing began at Helix High School but quickly expanded to include the rest of the school district. Between April and June of 1997, Brady made six different flights in a small plane to take color pictures of the facilities at the district's 10 high schools.
When examining the district's fields from the sky, Brady noticed a constant: that the girls had significantly fewer resources than the boys did. "It didn't really hit me until after the flight," he said. "It was amazing." La Mesa is a community in a very arid region of southern California, yet he noticed that the boys' fields were well-irrigated with lush grass, while the girls' fields consisted of little grass and lots of parched dirt.
The Role of the Office for Civil RightsIn December of 1997, Brady traveled north to San Francisco and paid a visit to the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR), one of 10 regional offices operated by the federal government. He refrained from filing a complaint, however, for fear of disrupting the upcoming softball season. Instead, the OCR agreed to make a presentation to the school district. In mid-January, the OCR presented guidelines to the Grossmont district on how they could bring themselves into compliance with Title IX. Turbulence on the board of education, however, prevented any immediate action.
In June of 1998, Brady filed an official complaint with the OCR, and by September, the OCR began making inquiries throughout the school district. Almost a year after filing his complaint, a five-person investigative team from the San Francisco OCR visited Grossmont for one week in early May of 1999 and began the largest single investigation of a school district in the state of California.
Brady's diligent research, fact-finding missions and personal financial investment paid off when the OCR visited. "I presented an inventory list of what the boys have compared to what the girls have, and then I showed pictures of the sites as they applied to the list. The investigative team really liked the way the information was presented," he said.
Brady's quest for truth that started in early 1997 with a concern about the treatment his daughter was receiving as a female student-athlete at Helix High School had turned into a case that educators and coaches followed closely across the state. By the end of September, the OCR had issued an 11-page letter of findings as a result of its prior investigation, and in October, the district reached a voluntary resolution with the OCR.
What Happens Next?The Grossmont school district has three years to enact the changes necessary to bring itself into compliance with Title IX, and it is slated to present a series of reports in February on the steps it will take to resolve the issues. Brady, however, has some concerns. "I want a clear definition of what the district plans to do to make changes. They could turn this into a positive thing by making it a district-wide project and involving everyone. It could be a huge learning project for the school and the students," he said. A female athletic director who also works as a drafting teacher at one of the district schools seized the opportunity; she made some of her students draft changes for the school's softball field and also had them create proposals on how to standardize all of the district's fields.
The San Diego section of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the state athletic association that governs interscholastic athletics, has included in its manual a new section on Title IX compliance and the complaint process. This is a step in the right direction, said Brady, but he would like to see the CIF become more proactive in encouraging schools to be in compliance rather than relying on the complaint process.
The Women's Sports Foundation urges parents and advocates to conduct educational campaigns about Title IX requirements before considering the OCR complaint process or bringing a lawsuit.
Advice for ParentsAs a seasoned advocate, Brady offers some words of advice for parents who are in the midst of a struggle to achieve gender equity in their daughters' schools: "Be patient and collect facts according to the guidelines," he said. Some tips from Brady and the Advocacy Department for increasing your effectiveness as an advocate:
- High-impact situations
Your chances for success may increase if you address a problem on a district-wide or state-wide basis. Try to determine whether or not other area schools are experiencing similar difficulties. If so, ally yourself with other advocates and work as a team.
- Facts, facts, facts
Do your research-it is difficult to dispute facts. Stick to the facts and do not editorialize or let your emotions control your actions. Contact the Women's Sports Foundation for national participation statistics or your state athletic association for participation statistics on a state-by-state basis. You can acquire the phone number for your state athletic association by contacting the National Federation of State High School Associations at (816) 464-5400.
- Perseverance
"Emphasize that you are the customer and the school district is the provider," said Brady. Reassure the other side that you will persevere until they make the necessary changes.
- Documentation
Keep track of all events in the process: meetings, presentations, reports. A weekly log or journal is always a good idea.
Brady's daughter Meghan, now a freshman at the University of California-Davis, was not around to see some of the improvements that have occurred at her alma mater. "She knew that the result was not going to be available to her," Brady said. "What the district doesn't know," he said, "is that I have a 13-year-old daughter who will be around to witness the changes."
Perhaps the most unique element of Brady's investigation-the airplane flights to capture photographic images of the playing fields-is one that he actually recommends to parents as a useful tool in assessing a possible gender equity situation: "Spend the $80 to get a pilot to fly around and take pictures of the school district," Brady said. "It's well worth the expense."
The Women's Sports Foundation encourages parents, coaches and athletes to take a stand for gender equity whether it involves an airplane or not. Contact the Advocacy Coordinator at (800) 227-3988 for advice on how to become an advocate in your area or ask about the Foundation's Community Action Program as a way to support girls' sports in your community.