Title IX

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We had another case decided in the girls favor in Toledo for a Title IX violation.
This has been discussed in the past and I volunteered to file any Title IX complaints. This can be done by anyone, even if you are not affiliated with the school. I heard a number of complaints but very few people follow through with giving me information so I can file.
I know of a few universities and high schools that are still in violation in NW Ohio alone. If you want to whine about it, then do something by either filing yourself or send me all of the info so I can file.

 

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One response already... any more???
I just need you to email me the details... if you have pictures, that helps.

Fast2home@yahoo.com

thanks,
Martin

 

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What was the latest case?

 

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Toledo schools... Rogers softball team....

 

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Someone ask me about the cost of filing a complaint. I do not charge anything, I do it because someone has to be an advocate for girls sports. I am in the position to do this since I have no ties to schools or governmental agencies.
If you would like to file yourself, I would be happy to help you do this. You do not have to have any affiliation with the program. I find that coaches, both college and high school, are relunctant to do this because they are afraid of getting fired or getting a stigma on their resume and would be difficult to get a job.

 

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Pictures definitely are good. I remember in 2003 when I took over at Thomas Worthington and the parent group had already put together a notebook. On one side it had a picture of the baseball dugouts and the side was the softball dugouts. Turn the page and one side was a picture of the baseball outfield fence and the other side was a picture of the softball outfield fence (or complete lack thereof).

They gave the school a chance to fix things before filing Title IX and the school did a good job of fixing the situation. I think they put about $35,000 into the fixes. The one area that schools can't claim to not have enough money is when something violates the law. At that point, if they really don't have the money they will find somewhere else to cut, as they have no choice.

 

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university of Cincinnati. Has no softball I have heard there are some questions on violations

 

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Got a question.

Let's say HS Baseball facility is immaculate w/ pressbox, but it has been done through Baseball team fundraisers and volunteer labor by the team and parents. Wouldn't it be the responsibility of the Softball team to "step up" and do the same if they wanted similar facilities? I don't see how the school could be in violation.

So wouldn't you have to clarify where the funding was coming from before you could proceed ?

Just Curious.

 

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Got a question.

Let's say HS Baseball facility is immaculate w/ pressbox, but it has been done through Baseball team fundraisers and volunteer labor by the team and parents. Wouldn't it be the responsibility of the Softball team to "step up" and do the same if they wanted similar facilities? I don't see how the school could be in violation.

So wouldn't you have to clarify where the funding was coming from before you could proceed ?

Just Curious.

No... where the funding comes from has no bearing on it. Someone could donate the entire cost of the baseball field and the school would have to improve the girls softball field.
I am not too picky when it comes to parent volunteers painting the press box and cleaning up... I agree, if the baseball parents volunteer, the softball parents should also. There should be some common sense involved. If the boys go out and sell pizza's, the girls should do the same. Boosters and outside donations are different though.

 

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Most Districts have a football team that easily costs as much as the rest of the endeavors put together. We see that the schools typically have equal number of teams generally supported similarly, (baseball and Softball are matched) Football just skews the numbers badly toward much more resources being directed toward the boys. In a local District there are 6 Girl's teams and 6 Boy's teams, 17 Girls Coaches and 28 Boys Coaches. The resources spent on coaches salaries is $70,000 for the Girls and $140,000 on the Boys. I am sure that when other expenses are factored in the gap grows larger and larger.

My question is how has the continued spending on football survived into the 21st Century with no chance of girls participating in any meaningful way. What smoke and mirror argument is used to continue this inequality.

Further, this same District allows both Hockey and LaCross to exist as varsity sports but without financial support from the District. This provides the Boys another 2 more teams and some 80 varsity players to the boys side of the ledger with no offsetting girls opportunities. These teams are held 'off the books' and are not counted as District Teams in regards to Title IX. How can this situation remotely meet Title IX requirements?

I am talking about a continued imbalance in sports opportunities and funding at all of local schools. What can be done about this?

 

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Since it is a school program, the school needs to approve everything. Minimal labor is one thing, drastic improvements is something else. I am not that much of an expert to say if it would be in violation for minimal labor done by volunteers. I would not file on this but would tell the other group to step up.
Again, from my understanding, it does not matter where the funding comes from.

 

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Most Districts have a football team that easily costs as much as the rest of the endeavors put together. We see that the schools typically have equal number of teams generally supported similarly, (baseball and Softball are matched) Football just skews the numbers badly toward much more resources being directed toward the boys. In a local District there are 6 Girl's teams and 6 Boy's teams, 17 Girls Coaches and 28 Boys Coaches. Those resources have $140,000 being spent on the Boys Coaches and only $70,000 being spent on the Girls coaches. I am sure that when other expenses are factored in the gap grows larger and larger.

My question is how has the continued spending on football survived into the 21st Century with no chance of girls participating in any meaningful way. What smoke and mirror argument is used to continue this inequality.

Further, this same District allows both Hockey and LaCross to exist as varsity sports but without financial support from the District. This provides the Boys another 2 more teams and some 80 varsity players to the boys side of the ledger with no offsetting girls opportunities. How can this situation remotely meet Title IX requirements?

Again, I am not an expert, I just have experiences at filing complaints and winning. I would think that if there was interest in a girl's hockey or ******** team, then the high school would have to offer it or if the girls had a sport that they wanted then the school would have to offer it to the same degree as ******** or Hockey.

 

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Most Districts have a football team that easily costs as much as the rest of the endeavors put together. We see that the schools typically have equal number of teams generally supported similarly, (baseball and Softball are matched) Football just skews the numbers badly toward much more resources being directed toward the boys. In a local District there are 6 Girl's teams and 6 Boy's teams, 17 Girls Coaches and 28 Boys Coaches. The resources spent on coaches salaries is $70,000 for the Girls and $140,000 on the Boys. I am sure that when other expenses are factored in the gap grows larger and larger.

My question is how has the continued spending on football survived into the 21st Century with no chance of girls participating in any meaningful way. What smoke and mirror argument is used to continue this inequality.

Further, this same District allows both Hockey and LaCross to exist as varsity sports but without financial support from the District. This provides the Boys another 2 more teams and some 80 varsity players to the boys side of the ledger with no offsetting girls opportunities. These teams are held 'off the books' and are not counted as District Teams in regards to Title IX. How can this situation remotely meet Title IX requirements?

I am talking about a continued imbalance in sports opportunities and funding at all of local schools. What can be done about this?

You are only saying that those teams exist without financial support from the school but I would bet they are not under control of the school in any way. They don't select the coach and that person doesn't answer to the AD. That is how it can exist under Title IX. It's a club team. In our district the girls rec softball teams use the school fields and they don't fall under Title IX either.

Our school district also has a girls La Crosse team. Uses the name, uses the fields but is not under the control of the district. The team has a board that selects the coaches. They fund raise and charge parents team fees. No busing to games.

 

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Unfortunately this is also about wanting to play. I know that is not the argument here, but there are big schools in Ohio that have well over 500 girls but they have difficulty fielding a freshman, reserve, and varsity team. The same school may have more boys go out for the freshman baseball team than all girls who go out for softball. What we need to do as parents is support the daughters we have in the best way that we can. Encourage them to stay involved in their school. The best way to increase the involvement of girls in sports in high school is to develop a winning tradition that keeps them coming back.

 

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university of Cincinnati. Has no softball I have heard there are some questions on violations

UC is not in violation concerning number of sports. Men have baseball and football, and women have la cross and volleyball. All other sports are both men's and women's. Xavier University also has a baseball team but no fastpitch softball team. They tether baseball with volleyball to satisfy Title IX.

Huh....didn't know this forum wouldn't let you spell la cross correctly.

Len

 

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You're all just kidding, right? In Ohio, high school football programs--at least at most schools--pay for themselves. They also pay for most of the other non-revenue sports-- like ALL of the girls' sports. Go to a girls' ****** game sometime. You'll see some parents of the players there. Go to a girls' basketball game sometime. You'll see the parents of the players there. They barely take in enough money at the gate to pay the officials. It might take another 40 years, but eventually the greedy demands of Title IX fanatics will put an end to ALL high school sports.

 

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I am not kidding.

High School football teams do not even come close to paying for themselves. That is an urban myth of the first water. They have some 4 or 5 home games with a couple of thousand people attending at $5 per-that is raking in say $10,000 a game on a good night on a good year. So they collect $50,000/year in gate fees. that doesn't even pay for the coaches let alone the helmets, the pads, the team doctor, the busses, the field maintenance, the officials,the insurance, the lights, the new turf, the trainer, the weight room, film crew, the fall camp, etc......... The field maintenance, (just cutting, seeding and fertilizing the grass at our local high school was $26,000 a year); They never spent $2,000 on the softball and baseball fields combined.

Just do the math and it comes out a big negative; that must be made up with taxpayer's money. Meanwhile your daughters are doing fund raisers to buy their new uniforms trying to replace the ten year old ones that baseball sent over. They travel on a school bus while the football team gets a coach bus. They arrive at a field that features one port-a-john dedicated to 50 some varsity and JV softball players. The outfield was destroyed by the s****r team and the infield has a water retention issue.

Title IX has been in place 40 some years. Why aren't we fair and equal? Why are we allowing our daughters to be treated as second class citizens? Why aren't you fed up with your daughters getting the scraps off of the public table?

 

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Why won't anyone explain the reasons that we accept the status-quo as inevitable?

 

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Why won't anyone explain the reasons that we accept the status-quo as inevitable?

Fairman, It's not just softball...it's our society that people tend not to want to get involve and rock the boat. This is one reason why I started this thread. I will be happy to get involved in your problems. I have no kids playing, I don't work for any schools or governmental agency. Someone pm me and ask me why I do it. Answer is simple, if I don't, who will???
Some people will be an advocate for different causes. I could say that I picked softball but it was more like softball picked me.
There is still alot of Title IX issues out there. It takes some work to fix them. The first case that I was involved in was the Toledo City baseball championship was held at the new Mud Hens stadium and the Toledo City softball was held at the worse field in northwest Ohio. The Investigator asked me if I thought that the girls should be playing at the stadium. I said no, I didn't care if it was "equal", just make it somewhat fair. Softball was moved to the Univ. of Toledo complex (which isn't great) but was acceptable to the high school coaches.
So, quit complaining and start doing something. If you contact me, be prepared to get me information, pictures would help and anything else. Superintendents and A.D.'s email addresses and phone numbers help. If you want to file yourself, I would be happy to help you out. It can be done on line. No cost, no attorney.

Martin