Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Parents Sue Fayetteville School District Over Girls’ Sports

6 min read

The families of three Fayetteville High School softball players have hauled the Fayetteville School District into court over allegations that the district treats the boys’ teams better than the girls’.

The plaintiffs charge the school district is violating Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972, which requires “equal treatment and benefits for girls compared to boys,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Samuel J. Schiller of Cookeville, Tennessee, told Arkansas Business last week. And in the case of Fayetteville High School, that hasn’t happened, he said.

“Just one example is the boys’ football and baseball locker rooms have showers. The girls’ softball locker room doesn’t have a shower,” Schiller said. “So it’s not hard to prove.”

Fayetteville School Superintendent Paul Hewitt referred questions about the lawsuit to the school’s attorney, R. Christopher Lawson at the Fayetteville office of law firm Friday Eldredge & Clark LLP. Lawson declined to comment specifically on the pending case.

The lawsuit, filed July 14 in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville, is a recent addition to a string of legal challenges across the country brought by parents of female high school athletes. And there may be more; Schiller said “it’s possible” that he’ll file similar complaints against other school districts in Arkansas, although he declined to name any of the potential targets.

“There’s nothing on the immediate horizon,” he said.

Schiller said he hopes other school districts will review how they are treating girls’ sports programs compared with the boys’ teams and make any necessary adjustments to comply with Title IX.

“We’re not wanting to bring boys’ sports down; we’re wanting to bring girls’ sports up,” he said.

Lance Taylor, executive director of the Arkansas Activities Association, the governing board for state high school athletic programs, said it was up to each school district to make sure it complies with Title IX requirements.

The Arkansas Department of Education’s Office of Equity Assistance will help a school district comply with Title IX requirements, if asked, Arkansas Department of Education spokeswoman Kimberly Friedman said in an email to Arkansas Business.

Jim McCarthy, a spokesman for the American Sports Council of Washington, an advocacy group for Title IX reform, said he has seen more lawsuits targeting high schools over allegations of Title IX violations in recent years.

He said his group agrees that the girls’ softball team should have a field that’s just as good as the boys’ baseball team.

“But there are countless examples of where Title IX litigation is wreaking havoc at the high school level,” he said.

He said the problems in some cases come when the Title IX lawsuits demand that a quota system be put in place for high school teams.

“Title IX has turned into a kind of legal steamroller, where quotas are imposed,” McCarthy said. “It often pits boys and girls against one another when instead they should really be teammates and helping and supporting one another.”

In September, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco upheld a ruling in which a lower court found that a school district had violated Title IX by “failing to provide girls with equal athletic facilities, coaching and publicity, among other things,” according to a news release from the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center of San Francisco, one of the organizations that argued the case.

“I believe the outcome of this case has major implications for girls throughout the country who are being denied the benefits of equal athletic opportunities,” Elizabeth Kristen, the senior staff attorney for LASELC, said in the news release. “The 9th Circuit’s ruling shows school districts throughout the country that Title IX violations will not be tolerated.”

‘They Were Frustrated’

Schiller said the parents of the Fayetteville High School girls tried more than once to talk with school officials about their concerns regarding what they considered unequal treatment of the softball team.

“Eventually, it just go to the point where they were frustrated and felt like they weren’t being heard,” Schiller said. The parents who sued are Chris D. Ezell, Wes R. Mabry and James Lyles and Donna Lyles. The girls on the team are identified in the lawsuit only by their initials.

The parents found a number of situations where the district allegedly violated Title IX.

On the list of complaints is the disparity in the number of coaches. The softball team has only one, but the boys’ baseball team has three and the football team has more than a dozen, according to the lawsuit.

“Since softball only has one experienced paid coach, he obviously cannot handle various levels of teams by himself,” the lawsuit said. “One result of this is that many students who try out for softball are not allowed to play.”

Hewitt, the Fayetteville superintendant, said in an email to Arkansas Business that the school district had announced in March it was adding another softball coach for the upcoming school year.

And he pointed out that for the 2014-15 school year, the school budgeted $11,450 for its 73 baseball players, which is $156.85 per student. That compares with $9,000 budgeted for its 24 softball players, which is $375 per student.

But the announcement about adding the softball coach didn’t soothe the parents.

The lawsuit said the district “purposefully restricted” its search to candidates within the school system. “In contrast, coaches for boys’ teams are selected from candidates both from within the school system as well as those outside the school system, in order to get the most qualified and experienced coach available.”

The field conditions are also a major concern to the parents.

The boys can play baseball on campus, and the baseball field dugouts have interior walls that are painted in the school’s colors of purple and white, an AstroTurf floor and lights. The softball field is several miles from campus and has unpainted interior walls, concrete floors and no lights, the lawsuit said.

In addition, the baseball outfield fence is a solid fence, while the softball field has a chain-link fence.

Schiller said he wants the school district to end its alleged discrimination against the girls’ teams. He also wants the district to put in place a budget and a plan that will correct the alleged violations of Title IX.

Schiller also asked for attorneys’ fees.

As of Wednesday, the school district hadn’t filed its response.

‘Equal Opportunities’

Schiller said that after both sides conduct their discovery in the case, talks will start on a way to resolve the case “for the benefit of all the kids.”

If the case isn’t resolved, a judge would decide if the district violated Title IX in the handling of the girls’ sports team.

The judge would examine whether the opportunities to play sports are equal for the boys and girls, among other issues. The judge also would consider whether the school gives the male and female athletes equal benefits and services.

“It does require a fact-intensive review,” Lawson, the attorney for the school district, said.

Lawson wasn’t speaking about the school district’s case but Title IX cases in general. “There will have to be a factual record developed to demonstrate whether or not these regulations warrant a finding of compliance or not.”

He said Title IX doesn’t require the girls’ and boys’ teams to be technically equivalent. “It requires equal opportunities,” he said. “And so you really have to be able to look at each case separately based on the facts at hand.”

Send this to a friend