Baseball bleachers taken down after ruling that girls softball team's seats must be

[fastpitch]

Now why would they do that? I would think a better resolution would be for the softball parents (assuming it was a softball parent) that complained to have fund raised the money to help the softball team out.

Baseball bleachers taken down after ruling that girls softball t - Fox 2 News Headlines


PLYMOUTH, Mich. (WJBK) - A set of seating is being torn down outside the Plymouth Wildcats varsity boys' baseball field, not long before the season begins, because the fields for boys' and girls' athletics must be equal.

A group of parents raised money for a raised seating deck by the field, as it was hard to see the games through a chain-link fence. The parents even did the installation themselves, and also paid for a new scoreboard.

But, after someone complained to the U.S Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, an investigated by the department determined the new addition was no longer equal to the girls' softball field next door, which has old bleachers and an old scoreboard.

A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Education offered the following:

“As a resolution to the district's violation of longstanding Title IX requirements to offer equal athletic opportunities to both boys and girls, the Department’s office of Civil Rights (OCR) accepted the district's voluntary agreement to address this inequality by constructing necessary improvements to the softball field, or demolishing the baseball structure, or some combination of both. The final decision on how best to comply with the law was made by the district. OCR’s preference from the beginning, was for the district to construct a similar structure for the girls' softball team.” – U.S. Department of Education spokesperson

The school agreed to take the seats down after receiving a citation for not providing handicap accessibility and as an option to comply with the federal assessment of the bleachers.

The superintendent says the seats and materials will be stored until they can form a plan that complies with the rules and is fair to everyone. He adds the money is not available to build a similar seating deck at the girls' field, but their field will be getting a new scoreboard.

 

[riseball]

^^^^ Your tax dollars at work ^^^^

 

[Cannonball]

This has been circulating for a few days. You can read a lot more on it. It seems that the girl's team and parents were asked at every turn if they wanted to participate in the fundraisers. They did not but the baseball program felt it had complied by continually asking them to participate. I was in a similar circumstance when I was the baseball coach. Our diamonds were built in "phases." The Varsity Baseball and Softball Diamonds are next to each other. There was ground planned in between for a combined concession stand, bathrooms and storage area to be built in Phase 2. That was not happening. So, as I taught class one day, a dad knocked on my classroom door, asked if I had the plans still for the building, took those plans and before the day was over, he had 100 workers volunteering their time to build this building. I was absolutely amazed that they could do so much. Still, we had to make sure that all facilities were equal. What was not equal was that the stuff that had to be paid for came out of the baseball portion of the booster club budget and so, I was forced to raise money for all materials I needed for the next 6 years. To this day, I don't know why softball was not hit equally. Long story short, I ended up donating my baseball stipend for those years. Still, there is a building down there that I am very proud of.

 

[Jquick823]

What was the cost of taking down the items plus the cost to store them... Most likely improperly. This is just another blatant misuse of funds. I'm guessing there is much much more to the inside of this, but as a parent of both a girl and a boy i would expect the school to call and say "hey we are going to have to tear down the boys bleachers unless we come up with XXX for the girls field. Any ideas?" It's not hard to raise money even in a crap economy. My TB team just raised another $1K on a 3 week gift card fundraiser and our 10U team raised $1700 so it can be done.

 

[Michael N]

I can tell you with utmost certainty that the Baseball programs in the state of Idaho have far superior facilities than the Softball programs . At my DD High School the baseball team has a very nice stadium , sunken dugouts , locker rooms and an indoor hitting facility . The Softball team has 2 small sections of bleachers that if you sit in them you can't see the scoreboard , some concrete dugouts and have to use the PE locker room to change . I haven't heard anyone complaining here but maybe they should be .

 

[riseball]

It is just not fair. The boys baseball fields are much bigger than the girls softball fields. Somebody needs to do something.

 

[YoungBuck]

If communities supported their schools through tax dollars, donations, and gifts properly we wouldn't have stories like this... what a shame.

 

[PEPPERS]

The softball team for local high school did a fundraiser to put lights on the softball field and raised enough to pay for the lights and should have had money for other improvements to the field the team raised between $9,000-$10,000.

5 years later not even a $2.00 flash light!!!!!!!

We thInk the money went to the football program.

 

[sluggers]

Why let the facts get in the way of a good "the country is going into the toilet" fabrication?

If you want to read the facts, here is an article from Forbes (hardly liberal by any stretch of the imagination): The Government Did Not Force A High School To Tear Out Its Baseball Seats - Forbes

This is a quote from Kate Dietrich, Director of Communications for the school district:

"Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to many supporters and parents, the boys baseball scoreboard and seating updates were constructed and managed outside of the appropriate district protocol... Upon closer investigation, the District also learned that the seating addition didn’t meet existing laws and zoning ordinances, and was not physically safe."

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I was told, when I was in IL., that I couldn't donate to the softball program, w/o donating to the baseball program. I wanted to give them a dozen balls. Oh, well.

The last time, i was involved in purchasing bleachers for the soccer team, at the HS - they were $40,000. And, that was 12 years ago.

I see that the bleachers that the HS purchased, didn't comply with the Disabilities Act. That would have been a major gaff.