A lawsuit filed in August by a father and his 12 year-old daughter, who wanted to play football on an all-male team, produced the intended effect when the parties settled last month.
The daughter, “C.B.,” is a seventh grader at Winamac Community Middle School in the Eastern Pulaski Community School Corporation in Indiana. The school’s seventh grade football team is made up solely of male students, and no male student who wants to join is turned away.
C.B. and her father, Joseph Button, asked the principal and athletic director if she could try out for the team, but were told that girls were not allowed to join, and that C.B. should instead participate in volleyball or cross country. The school’s decision not to allow C.B. to try out for the football team solely because of her gender “violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which was a party to the lawsuit.
“Numerous courts have recognized that gender is not a valid excuse for keeping young women out of previously all-male sports,” said ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk. “Equal protection demands equality of treatment.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in South Bend.
The settlement came after Superintendent Dan Foster sat down with the girl and her parents last week in a private meeting. Foster told the media after the settlement was reached that the initial decision to keep her from playing was made in error —the middle school principal and athletics director believed initially that they didn’t have to make accommodations under Title IX because the district offers two sports each for boys and girls. Foster added that once he became involved, it wasn’t a matter of if she was going to play, but how the district could work out the necessary accommodations.
“It was ‘what do we need to do to make sure that we cover her privacy issues and still allow her to play,'” said Foster. “It was a very cordial meeting. Both sides were very cordial. It took us about 20 minutes and everybody walked away happy.”
