By Terri Lakowski
Female Baseball Player Goes to "Bat" For Equity
A female high school baseball player contacted the Foundation because her school refused to allow her to tryout for its baseball team. The athletic director claims that softball and baseball are equivalent sports, and that she must try out for the softball team. The Advocacy Department sent her
Playing Fair, a resource that explains Title IX rules and regulations to help athletes, coaches, parents and others better analyze their school's athletic programs;
A Step by Step Guide to Gender Equity, a resource that gives activists a detailed, step-by-step plan for achieving gender equity; and
Coed Participation-Girls Playing on Boys Teams and Male Versus Female Competition, a Foundation position paper on the permissibility of same sex and co-ed athletic competition. We also called the athletic director and explained that baseball and softball are different sports. The Advocacy Department explained that because girls are underrepresented athletically at the school, girls should be allowed to try out for the baseball team. The athletic director said that she would allow the girl to try out, except the state high school athletic association has a rule that prohibits girls from competing in baseball. The Advocacy Department called the state association and spoke to the director over baseball and softball. He said a waiver could be granted in this case to allow the girl to play baseball.
Success:The female baseball player was granted a waiver from the state athletic association and tried out for the baseball team. Her response to the Advocacy Department: “I would like to thank you for helping me be able to play high school baseball. I made the freshman team and might be brought up to play a few games for the JV team. You were a big help in having the school administrators and coaches allow me to try out and play. I really appreciate your help because I've always had a dream to play high school baseball, and you made that dream possible.”
Geena's Hero:Allie, baseball player
Massachusetts
Wrestler ”Takes Down” Discriminatory School
A father of a middle school wrestler contacted the Foundation to see if we could provide any assistance for his eighth-grade daughter. Two schools in his daughter's conference refuse to allow its male athletes to wrestle the females and instead forfeit the matches against this parent's daughter and other female wrestlers in the league. A superintendent of one of the schools said the school “does not want to put our young men in a situation where they would be inappropriately touching a young lady.” The father and wrestling coach brought their concerns to the school principal, who refused to discontinue competition with those two schools. The coach was demoted from head to assistant coach after he raised these concerns. The father and coach filed a compliant with the Office of Civil Rights in May of 2005 against the school, the conference and the state athletic association. They contacted the Foundation to see what other avenues they could pursue. The Advocacy Department provided the father with an attorney referral. The attorney contacted the head of this school district to be pressure on the district to end the discriminatory practices.
Success:The father's and attorney's pressure worked. The school district told the schools that refused to allow their boys to wrestle the girls that they must either allow the boys to compete against the girls or withdraw from the league. The schools opted to withdraw from the league.
Geena's Hero:Jerry, father of a female wrestler
Read more success stories.