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Bristol, PA School District Investigated for Title IX Violations

By Erin Buzuvis, Sudha Setty, and Kristine Newhall

Booster-raised funds are at the heart of a recent complaint to the Department of Education that the Bristol (Pennsylvania) Borough School District is discriminating against female athletes in the allocation of athletic department resources like facilities, equipment and supplies. The Department's Office for Civil Rights is investigating the charge. Not too many details are provided in this AP report other than that the claimed inequities are charged to result from the district's spending of funds raised by a "recently formed football booster club."

As we frequently point out (booster club cases are common), per OCR's policy, funds raised by booster clubs are considered revenue of the school, the spending of which does not provide a defense for inequities between boys' and girls' sports. If the football team is getting preferential treatment, the district is violating Title IX regardless of the source of funds.

Full post as published by Title IX Blog on October 06, 2008 (boomark / email).