A New Attack on Women's Sports
EDITORIAL, NY TIMES, April 12, 2005

LINK

The Bush administration has mounted a surreptitious new attack on Title IX, the 33-year-old law that has exponentially expanded the participation of girls and women in sports.

Last month, a memo went up on an Education Department Web site that was billed as a "clarification" of Title IX regulations. But the memo amounted to a major weakening of the criteria used to determine compliance with the rule that all schools receiving public funds provide equal sports opportunities for men and women. Under the new guidelines, on campuses where the proportion of female athletes falls notably below the proportion of women in the student body, and sports programs for women are not expanding, a college will still be able to show it is "fully and effectively" obeying the law by doing an online survey that shows women have no unmet sports interests. The department says that if the rate of response is low - as it is with most such surveys - that will be interpreted as a lack of interest.

Currently, such surveys are just one factor used on the college level to gauge interest in women's sports, along with more accurate measures, like participation rates in "feeder" high schools or recreational leagues, and the opinions of coaches and administrators. There is no similar burden on male athletes to register their interest, and surveys are a poor predictor of behavior if sports opportunities are afforded equally. The president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Myles Brand, worries that this loophole "will likely stymie the growth of women's athletics and could reverse the progress made over the last three decades."

This harmful change, made without public notice or debate, marks a dismaying turnaround. Two years ago, the administration rejected a set of hobbling proposals to alter the criteria for Title IX compliance, including a change similar to the one it has now quietly instituted. Still, there is cause for hope. The Bush administration supported the Supreme Court's important ruling in March extending Title IX's coverage to whistle-blowers who complain about a school's treatment of female athletes. A public outcry may yet persuade the administration to withdraw the new regulation.

Title IX ruling backs those who speak out
Daily Trojan, April 1, 2005

LINK

In 1972, a revolution in sports occurred when Title IX was passed.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled the revolution was worth it.

Title IX bars schools and colleges that receive federal funds from discriminating in any area "on the basis of sex." It has had the greatest effect on athletics, as women's sports have thrived around the country since the law went into effect.

And in Tuesday's ruling, the Supreme Court strengthened enforcement of the law by ruling teachers and coaches may challenge schools for "giving girls second-class treatment without fear of being punished," the Los Angeles Times reported.

The decision stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a high school girls' basketball coach in Alabama who was fired after he complained the facilities for his athletes were of poorer quality than those used by the male athletes.

Lower courts had dismissed the coach's claim. Fortunately, the Supreme Court disagreed with those decisions.

As the justices noted, civil rights laws have protected both discrimination victims and those who want to enforce it.

In the court's decision, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote, "Individuals who witness discrimination would likely not report it, indifference claims would be short circuited, and the underlying discrimination would go unremedied."

Clearly, the Supreme Court did the right thing. Both civil rights laws and Title IX have created vast opportunity for our nation's women and minorities. But laws only have effect if they are respected and enforced.

And often, teachers and coaches, who interact with students everyday, are in a better position to recognize and speak out against discrimination. Now, they need not fear punishment.

This ruling simply extends the supportive message that Title IX initially created.

As Americans, we have been taught to stand up and fight inequality and discrimination when we see it in the workforce. It is a poor message to be sending our nation's youth when our courts do not protect those who fight it in our high schools.

Court sides with Title IX watchdogs
Utah coaches, government at odds: The state opposes the ruling, which backs a whistle-blower
By Lya Wodraska, The Salt Lake Tribune, March 30, 2005

LINK

Title IX - a part of sweeping civil rights legislation instituted more than 30 years ago - prohibits discrimination based on gender in any educational program receiving federal funds. Most commonly, the law means that female athletes receive the same resources as males.

But those who reported such discrimination weren't protected themselves, until Tuesday.

The Supreme Court ruled that Title IX also shields those who complain of Title IX abuses. The ruling was the result of a case in Alabama in which a high school girls basketball coach was fired for complaining the boys team received better treatment. Justices ruled 5-4 in favor of the coach.

Opposing the coach, Roderick Jackson, were nine states - Utah, Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia - and the National School Boards Association.

Supporting the coach was a coalition of several national groups, including the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Federation of Teachers.

That Utah would be opposed to such a ruling took the state's coaches by surprise almost as much as learning they didn't have the protection in the first place.

"I thought it was the other way around," said Mountain View girls basketball coach Dave Houle, the state's most successful coach. "It's absolutely disheartening to think that you could get fired for saying something. I bet 95 percent of the coaches in the state didn't know that."

Jackson lost his job in 2001 after asking school officials to provide his team a regulation-sized gym with basketball rims that weren't bent, equivalent to what the boys' team had. He sued under Title IX for wrongful termination.

Title IX already gave protection to students and others who wanted to sue if they thought they were discriminated based on their gender, but it didn't extend to those who weren't direct victims.

"Without protection from retaliation, individuals who witness discrimination would likely not report it, indifference claims would be short-circuited and the underlying discrimination would go unremedied," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote.

Joining her in the majority opinion were Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Beyer.

The dissenting justices argued that schools might have to pay damages for retaliation claims, a possible scenario that wasn't discussed when schools originally accepted federal funding.

Skyline coach Deb Bennett was just as shocked as Houle to hear the landmark case was even necessary and of Utah's position.

"One of the things about Title IX is you are supposed to be able to recognize what isn't right so it can be changed," Bennett said. "It's a huge relief that it passed, particularly with Title IX because if there is a disadvantage or a discrepancy, it needs to be fixed."

Carol Lear, the coordinator for school law and legislation for the state Board of Education, said her office was not the one opposed to the case, but at the same time could understand Utah's position. Lear said she supported Title IX but wondered if Tuesday's ruling would be the springboard for numerous lawsuits.
"In my experience in Utah, we do try to address problems without litigation," she said. "We have so little money that we just don't want to spend our education money in litigation."

Houle strongly disagreed, saying the right thing should be done at whatever the cost, especially since Title IX issues are still common. "I'm fine at my school; we have a great program, but coaches will say to me they can't use the larger gym or something like that," he said. ''I'll tell them they should say something and they'll say they'll get fired if they do. I used to say, 'What?' I didn't think they really could.''

Mary Bowman, the University of Utah's associate director of student athlete support services, said she was also surprised there was no protection for whistleblowers.

"It's a no-brainer; I don't understand why Utah would be against it," said Bowman, who monitors Title IX issues for the university.

"To me, there needs to be a safeguard to protect those who need to say something."

The importance of Title IX
ChicagoSports.com, March 31, 2005

LINK

When it comes to sports and the law, Title IX looms like a heavyweight champ--still standing after 33 years. Two recent actions reiterate the importance of, as well as the controversy around, the 1972 federal anti-discrimination law that has transformed sports programs for women and girls across America.

Exhibit A: Jackson vs. Birmingham (Ala.) Board of Education.

Roderick Jackson of Ensley High School in Birmingham contended that he was dumped as a coach in 2001--while keeping his job as a teacher--because he complained that his female basketball players didn't receive the same funding and facilities as the boys' team: such things as a regulation-size court and rims that weren't bent. He tried to sue under Title IX but was rebuffed in lower federal courts.

On Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Jackson was entitled to pursue a Title IX lawsuit. The majority said the law protects those who wish to sue when they suffer retaliation for complaining about gender discrimination, even if they aren't victims of the unequal treatment.

Title IX proponents cheer the expansion of the law to protect those who stand up for fairness, including a male coach of a girls' team. Critics say the ruling invites lawsuits from people suffering a beef, not a personal injustice.

And what of Jackson? He can move forward with his lawsuit in the courts, where he still must prove the merits of his case. Better yet, he can concentrate on coaching. He got that extracurricular duty back, on an interim basis, in 2003. And the rims are no longer bent.

But controversy over Title IX continues.

Exhibit B: On March 18, the U.S. Department of Education posted on its Web site a clarification of Title IX regulations. One key point is that colleges now can show they are complying with Title IX's gender equity demands based on online surveys of their students.

That sounds fine in theory. But a mass e-mail to which only a few students reply could let a school wrongly assume it is meeting the athletic interests and abilities of women on its campus.

Imagine a ballot measure in which those who don't vote are counted as voting no. That's preposterous. So is using a mass e-mail, in this spam-infested era, to assess opinions on such an important issue.

In fairness, the clarification does note that schools have other means to fulfill their obligations to female students. Schools can meet Title IX standards by showing they have athletes in proportion to their numbers of males and females enrolled. Or they can demonstrate a history and continuing practice of adding teams for women.

Title IX has been criticized for decades as do-goodism run amok. But it's still standing--and still opening the way for champions.

Copyright © 2005, The Chicago Tribune

March 30, 2005
SPORTS OF THE TIMES
A High School Coach Blows the Whistle When Good Just Isn't Good Enough
By GEORGE VECSEY, NY TIMES

LINK

Birmingham, Ala.

THE rims were bent. They were not the collapsible-style rims that the professionals use, but shabby, secondhand twisted rims on wooden backboards.

Evidently, they were good enough for girls.

That was the start of it for Roderick Jackson, the click in the heart that told him injustice was being perpetrated on the girls he coached.

Jackson did not set out to be a hero or a martyr or even an unpretentious high school coach who yesterday won a case in the Supreme Court.

The injustice just clicked in, the way it did decades ago for Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Ala., mainly because her feet were tired and she didn't want to trudge all the way to the back of the bus.

The unfairness quotient filled up, the way it did for Jackie Robinson when he was serving as an officer in the United States Army during World War II and a civilian bus driver told him to go to the back of the bus.

That's what it was like for Roderick Jackson when he started counting up the inequities facing the players on the Ensley Magnet High School girls' basketball team in 1999 - unequal budgets, no ice for girls' swollen ankles, "the girls' J.V. eliminated but not the boys' J.V., a whole laundry list," Jackson recited yesterday, standing outside the school on a muggy afternoon.

He was giving a few interviews on a public sidewalk in his free time because he wants to play by the rules of the Birmingham Board of Education, which makes sense, considering he had just won a suit against that same board.

Jackson's case makes for an object lesson in civics - the concept of a citizen who could not keep quiet when he felt his players were being shortchanged because of their gender.

"I just believed that you can't tell kids to go along to get along," Jackson said. "I had no choice. Being a teacher, we're in the first line of defense. Other people don't know, but we know how it works."

Jackson had been in the military - six years in the Army Reserve, weekends, summer camp - enough to know about the chain of command. He tried that, and the school dropped him as coach, costing him about $6,000 a year above the modest teacher's salary of about $35,000.

So Roderick Jackson, with a wife and two children, found himself going all the way to the Supreme Court, which issued a 5-to-4 decision yesterday that essentially protected so-called whistle-blowers.

Marcia D. Greenberger, the co-president of the National Women's Law Center in Washington, said that yesterday's decision was important because it protected those who complain about gender inequities under Title IX, the 1972 law that banned sex discrimination in any educational program receiving federal funds.

Title IX is under attack from many angles, including the current administration. Last Friday afternoon, the Department of Education issued new guidelines that allow schools to put gender equality in the hands of dubious spamming or telemarketing techniques.

The way this administration wants it, schools can canvass prospective athletes by e-mail and interpret a low electronic response as a lack of interest and can therefore make changes or adjustments in school athletic programs. Jackson, 39 and mild and chubby, said he had coached girls in middle school, then had a 13-1 record with boys in the middle school and was recruited to coach girls in the high school. He said he never considered himself a feminist or activist, but he began to confront "years of neglect."

"The girls were second-class citizens," he added.

After being dropped as coach, he went to court, even representing himself in one appeal because "coaches deal with instinct," also saving himself lawyers' fees. He added yesterday, "You know the saying about a man who represents himself has a fool for a client." He must have done all right. His case was taken up by others, and after missing two seasons, he was reinstated as interim coach of the girls' team.

"We've had some improvements," he said softly. "Regulation gym. Last year the expenses were on the same budget."

He said the five years of being involved in a legal case had not been fun for his wife, Joni, a revenue examiner for the state of Alabama, and their daughter, LaBritney, and son, Nicholas.

Last year, the N.W.L.C. honored Jackson at its annual dinner in Washington, along with Julie Foudy, the retiring mainstay of the great United States women's soccer team. Jackson took his family, including the two children, who had never been on a plane or been to the capital before.

"They've been through an emotional roller coaster," he said. "Nobody likes to hear their father called a troublemaker, a rabble-rouser."

He never saw himself that way. He just wanted to coach girls, and let them shoot at the same rims as the boys.

E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com


Gender Equity in Sports

TITLE IX: 25 Years of Progress

TITLE IX Amendments of 1972

TITLE 34 C.F.R. Part 106

TITLE 20 - Education

American Association of University Women TITLE IX Position Paper

Women's Equity Education Resource Center TITLE 9