People call baseball America’s pastime, but it is a sport that numerous high schools nationwide treat more favorably than its female counterpart, softball.
Over the last several years, numerous students and their parents have brought lawsuits against school districts for providing inferior equipment, facilities, and coaches to softball teams compared to baseball teams. I cited several examples in a blog post I wrote last month on the topic, including Ollier v. Sweetwater Union High School District in California, where the girls’ softball program was forced to play on a substandard field that was overused by the physical education program and lacked basic amenities like covered dugouts. The baseball field, however, was fully fenced, locked, and reserved exclusively for the boys’ team and was in excellent condition. The boys also had covered dugouts with storage and a concession stand. The photo below shows the difference in the quality of the boys’ and girls’ playing fields.
This week, I read about a Title IX lawsuit in Lewistown, Illinois, brought by parents of softball players who said the school district treated the softball team unfairly compared with the baseball team. The district settled, and the good news is that it is making improvements and upgrades to the softball field, including building a new concession stand and press box, installing a new scoreboard and locker room, and making dugout improvements. The bad news is that the lawsuit and settlement cost $101,800, including $63,000 in legal expenses. Taxpayers are left paying most of the costs.
If the school had already been complying with Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination at any educational program that receives federal funding, then no expenses would have been necessary. The school wasn’t compliant, but if the school administrators had worked on a solution with parents and community members without a lawsuit, they could have avoided $63,000 in legal expenses.
AAUW’s new project Title IX Compliance: Know the Score encourages community members to find out if their local high schools treat their athletes equitably. If it appears the schools do not, the project provides members with the steps they can take to try to pressure schools into compliance without a costly lawsuit. We know schools are strapped for money and have more important programs on which to focus their funding, so lawsuits should be a last resort. But we do not want to see schools shortchange girl athletes.
Learn more about the Title IX Compliance: Know the Score program and how you can investigate your local school. Download and watch a webinar on the project and hear success stories about people who created change at their schools. You can also follow the program on Twitter (KTSTitleIX) and become a fan of the project on Facebook to find out the latest Title IX athletics news.
