High schools in the cross hairs

By JENNIFER KABBANY - For The Californian | Monday, October 6, 2008 12:13 AM PDT ∞

For those of you unmoved by a recent article about allegations that officials at Temecula Valley High School discriminated against female athletes in violation of federal law, let me assure you, it's nothing to be nonchalant about.

The way in which Title IX, the law in question, is being manipulated by overzealous feminists and their powerful lobbying groups could end up decimating high school athletics in much the same way college sports teams have been shot in the gut.

The 36-year-old law was originally passed to eliminate gender discrimination.

But it is now being used to mandate that college athletic departments mirror the gender ratio of the campus. In other words, if 65 percent of a college's undergraduate students are female, then 65 percent of its athletes must also be.

To comply with the law, college officials have been forced to eliminate hundreds of men's sports teams and cap their rosters.

According to the College Sports Council, a national coalition of coaches, athletes and parents dedicated to preserving the student-athlete experience, 2,200 men's college athletic teams have been eliminated since 1981 because of the influence of Title IX regulations.

Some of the sports hit hardest are swimming, wrestling, tennis and track.

"If every woman decided she didn't want to play sports, then the way this law is applied, there could be no men's sports whatsoever," Steven Gieseler, an attorney with the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation, SAID in a telephone interview.

While these quota regulations have traditionally been enforced at colleges, now extremists are coming after high schools.

"We haven't seen the widescale elimination of boy's teams yet at the high school level, but we are seeing the very early stages of this pressure," said Eric Pearson, chairman of the College Sports Council.

Pearson cites statements from feminist advocacy groups in Washington, D.C., asking for greater Title IX enforcement at the high school level, as well as a bill pending in Congress asking that high schools report their gender participation levels to the feds.

While much of the Title IX enforcement centers on quotas, there are other huge red flags to be wary of, such as the reaction to some volunteer efforts and donations of parents and community members� for high school sports teams, Pearson said.

One of the most famous examples brought to national attention in John Stossel's 2006 bestselling book "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity" centers on a high school in Florida and its baseball team.

The book describes how parents and players hit up local businesses to pay for lights and a scoreboard for their baseball field, as well as how they built a concession stand and bleachers on their own, without money or help from the school district.

But because the boys' baseball field was better than the girls' softball field, the school district was sued and a judge ruled the fields must be equal. Board members at the time decided the best answer was to shut down the boy's lights and scoreboard, close the concession stand and rope off the bleachers in the name of gender equity.

That example is frighteningly similar to a situation at Temecula Valley High.

In 2005, a suspicious fire destroyed an old wooden snack shack behind the boys baseball field. In an amazing show of force, parents, players, coaches and community members raised money to rebuild bigger and better.

The end result, after more than a year of tireless volunteerism ---- hosting fundraisers, hitting up hardware stores and rebuilding things with their own hands ---- was a two-story concession stand, announcer's booth and tiered seating.

The project might have cost $750,000 if completed by traditional means, but the parents did it themselves without taking any money from the school district.

While the boys enjoy the fruits of their labor, the girls are still playing on the same old field. They can't share fields because the dimensions are different.

Now federal education officials are investigating allegations that officials at Temecula Valley High School discriminated against female athletes in violation of Title IX.

We don't know whether the baseball situation is what prompted the feds to come to Temecula Valley High asking questions. But according to campus sources, it's the most obvious example they can name.

If teams must adhere to quotas and donations are discouraged for fear of gender-equity lawsuits, then high school sports programs will suffer immensely.

Under the guise of Title IX, Temecula Valley High School may be the next victim of extremists' unsportsmanlike conduct.

Jennifer Kabbany covered education for The Californian from 2004 to 2007 and is now a freelance writer. E-mail her at Jennifer.kabbany@gmail.com.