Education Law

Clark College Ex-Coach Awarded $545,000 in Retaliation Case

Posted on July 16, 2010
Another coach has won damages in a Title IX retaliation case. Trev Kiser, formerly the women's basketball coach at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, was awarded a $545,000 verdict (plus attorneys fees) in a case that claimed he was wrongfully terminated in retaliation for complaining about inequitable treatment of the women's basketball team...

Sexual Harassment Litigation Roundup

Posted on July 15, 2010
Here is a roundup of news related to Title IX cases involving sexual harassment and assault:A former student at Arizona State has sued the Board of Regents claiming that the university failed to adequately protect her from a rape that occurred at a fraternity house...

Petition for data collection in high schools

Posted on July 14, 2010
As we have noted previously, there is a bill currently in the US House of Representatives that calls for the collection of data about gender equity in athletics in high schools--similar to that collected by the Department of Education. If you would like to urge Congress to pass the High School Athletics Accountability Act, you can go here and sign the petition...

Sure it'd be nice to keep all the sports...

Posted on July 13, 2010
In a recent hearing in California, a state senator strongly questioned the folks at UC Davis over their recent decision to cut four intercollegiate athletic teams. Senator Dean Florez, who serves on the senate's Select Committee on Gender Discrimination and Title IX Implementation (out of curiously, do other states have such a committee?), feared that the cuts were not bringing Davis any closer to proportionality...

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Inside Higher Ed takes notice

Posted on July 09, 2010
Erin's recent publication in the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy got the attention of the editors at Inside Higher Ed. They published a synopsis of her article on the Title IX whistleblower cases, the impact of the high success rate of the cases brought by coaches and administrators who take issue with the ways in which athletic departments are (or are not) enacting gender equity, and even talked to Eric Pearson, chairperson of the College Sports Council, a group with whom we "Title IX lemmings" (a term used to describe me recently--NOT by Pearson) usually butt heads...

Diablo Valley College to Reinstate Teams

Posted on July 08, 2010
Diablo Valley College (Pleasant Hill, California) will reinstate the men's and women's cross country, track and tennis teams cut four months ago, in settlement of a threatened investigation and review by the Office of Civil Rights. The two-year college, which has 52% male enrollment that receives s 61% of athletic participation opportunities, cut an equal number of men's and women's teams, in order to "try to remove discussion of gender equality," according to an official of the Conta Costa Community College District, which operates DVC...

Coaches' Title IX Literacy Called Into Question

Posted on July 02, 2010
Coaches are sorely lacking foundational knowledge about Title IX, according to new, unpublished research profiled in this article in Athletic Business. The study's authors, Ellen Staurowsky of Ithaca College and Erianne Weight of Bowling Green, found that most coaches have received no formal Title IX training and instead rely largely on the media for their knowledge of the law...

Sidelined: Title IX Retaliation Cases and Women's Leadership in College Athletics

Posted on June 30, 2010
My own article by that title was recently published in the current issue of the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy (.pdf). In it, I examine the retaliation cases at Fresno State, FGCU, Berkeley, Montana State, Feather River College and others. I argue that:The current spate of retaliation cases is...

Indiana scheduling case on the docket

Posted on June 29, 2010
The case being brought by Amber Parker on behalf of her daughter against the Indiana High School Athletic Association and Franklin High School (where Parker is also the girls' basketball coach) is headed to summary judgment.At issue in the case is the longstanding complaint that the boys' basketball team gets more opportunities to play their games during primetime (Friday nights)...

Cuts to Men's Teams and the Shark Attack Phenomenon

Posted on June 28, 2010
This article about the Quinnipiac trial contained the following quote from the coach of the former men's track team, which was cut along with volleyball:The unfortunate reality of Title IX in this day and age is that university?s choose to eliminate men?s programs rather than add women?s programs...

Perspectives in QU/cheerleading

Posted on June 26, 2010
Nothing major to report. I haven't seen any coverage of the closing arguments yet but if something of note occurs, we'll post about it.In reading some of the coverage that stemmed largely from Jeff Webb's testimony Tuesday about the legitimacy of cheerleading as a varsity sport, I came across a post from The Washington Post...

Amici In High Places

Posted on June 25, 2010
I learned at the Quinnipiac trial this week that the Department of Justice has filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiff's argument that cutting volleyball would render the school out of compliance with Title IX. In the brief, the government echoes the district court's analysis of the motion for preliminary injunction: that "extra" players added to women's teams to suggest the appearance of equity should not be counted toward Qunnipiac's purported demonstration of proportionality, since the law seeks to ensure equitable distribution of "genuine" participation opportunities, not illusory ones...

Title IX Is Good for Stanford

Posted on June 25, 2010
In honor of Title IX's anniversary, here is a great article crediting Title IX for strengthening Stanford University athletics. After the law passed, some in the athletic department were resistant to expanding opportunities for women, but many of them changed their tune and eventually crediting women's programs for helping to improve moral and institutional pride...

Mythbusting in Honor of Title IX's Anniversary

Posted on June 23, 2010
Sadly, it seems that every year, folks use Title IX's anniversary to trot out tired old arguments that it's time to "get beyond" Title IX. Because these people obviously don't read this blog, or they wouldn't be so misinformed, it seems like an act of futility, on par with spitting in the wind, to address these arguments...

Cheerleading on Trial

Posted on June 23, 2010
As Kris mentioned, we were both in the courtroom yesterday for all of Jeff Webb's fascinating testimony about the nature of competitive cheer. Webb is a national expert on college cheerleading, by virtue of his position as CEO of Varsity Brands, which owns and operates all of the major cheer competitions and camps, and his leadership in other governing bodies and associations related to cheerleading...

BTW...

Posted on June 23, 2010
Happy Anniversary Title IX! 38 years and counting.I find it appropriate that a big Title IX case is currently underway during this anniversary, the outcome of which is likely to have a very large impact on the the law's application.And I also use this moment to remind people that because the legislation still exists, because equity in education has not been achieved, because we hear every week (at least!) about disparities, that we are not in a post-Title IX era...

QU trial: Lopiano testifies

Posted on June 23, 2010
So the Title IX Blog did indeed take a field trip to Connecticut yesterday to watch some of the Quinnipiac University trial. Erin will be posting about what we saw (because she took notes and I just sat there amazed at some of the things people say and the amount of paper involved in these things--binders and binders full of emails and letters and other evidence)...

Quinnipiac trial begins tomorrow

Posted on June 20, 2010
The trial in the Quinnipiac University volleyball case begins tomorrow in federal court in Connecticut. There is nothing new to report since last month's decision to grant class-action status to the case being brought by five volleyball players.As a reminder, at issue is Quinnipiac's "roster management" practices which seemed--in the past at least--to under report the number of men playing sports and overinflate the number of women doing so--so much so that some of these squad sizes were not in compliance with NCAA regulations...

Softball Added at Weatherford College

Posted on June 18, 2010
A year-and-half ago, OCR launched an "inquiry" into Title IX compliance at Weatherford College in Texas, in response to gross disparity in athletic opportunities for male and female students. The inquiry produced an agreement that obligated the college to add sport if a survey of the female student body revealed sufficient interest...

Title IX, World Cup, human rights, and the quote of the day

Posted on June 10, 2010
The College Sports Council, which advocates for Title IX "reform," has used the start of the men's World Cup to issue a report on the alleged lack of growth of men's soccer at the collegiate level in the United States. This is not a new argument as I have noted previously...

Falsified Data Justified Sex-Segregated Middle School

Posted on June 06, 2010
The ACLU continues to challenge the sex-segregated middle school in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, having recently filed an appeal of the district court's refusal to issue a preliminary injunction against continuing to separate boys and girls in core curriculum and other classes...

Community saves sports at Bakersfield

Posted on June 02, 2010
In February we noted that CSU Bakersfield was, due to budget shortfalls, being forced to cut four sports: golf (MW), tennis (W), and wrestling (M).But community members and donors have rallied in what appears to be two separate campaigns to raise money to keep the sports going for at least another year, maybe even two...

Florida State to add sand volleyball

Posted on May 27, 2010
We probably will not be blogging about every school that adds sand volleyball, the NCAA's latest addition to the NCAA's emerging sport list.But I was intrigued by the brief article about Florida State's decision to add sand volleyball to its roster; largely because there seemed to be some misinformation...

Softball facility improvement forthcoming in NC

Posted on May 26, 2010
It does not appear that we blogged about the complaint filed with OCR in 2009 out of Richmond County in North Carolina. But the allegations of disparities in the treatment of women's athletics, specifically softball, are currently being investigated. And Richmond Senior High School has promised to improve the facilities--to make them comparable to baseball's facilities...

Quinnipiac Plaintiffs Certified as Class Action

Posted on May 25, 2010
A district court judge in Connecticut ruled last week granted class action status to a lawsuit filed by Quinnipiac volleyball players who are suing for a permanent injunction against Title IX violations that would result from the university's decision to terminate their team...

Are Flag Football Opportunities Equal Opportunities?

Posted on May 24, 2010
Recently, the New York Times profiled the increasing popularity of flag football as a high school sport for girls, particularly in Florida. In trying to examine this trend, the article managed to add controversy by sensationalizing the positions of some women's sports advocates and casting them as the mean, feminist foils to good wholesome fun...

Judge Dismisses Heterosexual Bias Case

Posted on May 07, 2010
Last year, a former player for the Central Michigan State women's basketball team sued her coach, the university, and other university officials, challenging the coach's decision to revoke her scholarship and the athletic department's affirmation of that decision...

OCR and Kansas Reach Agreement Over Title IX Complaint

Posted on May 06, 2010
According to news reports, the University of Kansas and the Office of Civil Right have agreed that KU will document its Title IX compliance, in resolution to a complaint that KU violates Title IX by discriminating against men in the distribution of athletic opportunities...

Question the parentheses

Posted on May 03, 2010
I, too, read the news that Orange County, North Carolina schools had been given a clean Title IX bill of health. This article from the Chapel Hill News goes so far as to say that any statistical disparities favored girls--but not the detriment of boys...

North Carolina High School Cleared of Title IX Charges

Posted on May 03, 2010
After school officials at Cedar Ridge High School in Orange County, N.C., decided to terminate the highly successful volleyball coach, Laurie Calder-Green, and replace her with a less experienced male coach, parents there filed a complaint with OCR, claiming that Orange County Schools discriminated against high school girls and their coaches by paying the coaches less, providing less qualified coaches and not working to recruit and retain their coaches...

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