HS parents file Title IX suit for unsafe softball field

[Cobb_of_Fury]

It doesn't matter where the money comes from. The school is required to keep the softball and baseball facilities similar.

I don't know that this is true.
I think the school is only required to use federal money evenly and provide equal access

If the Baseball boosters want to spend a million dollars on a baseball field that will have no effect on softball or field hockey or any other girls sport.

Have you seen football fields at all?

 

[Angus]

Contact your state’s Department of Human Rights. They’ll let you know if there’s enough to file a complaint. If so, you won’t be required to pay anything for them to investigate it. It will take years though as Quincy said.

Well, we moved out of the area anyway. The fields themselves were maintained well, but all of the amenities - bathrooms, concession stands, scoreboards, etc were on the other side of the park with the baseball fields. For softball, if someone had to use the bathroom, they had to walk down to a porta potty in the parking lot.

We now play out of Chesterfield, MO, which has an amazing complex with 16 fields (plus 10 or so practice fields). Interestingly, the same fields are used for both baseball and softball, so they are all playing on a dirt infield. Only one or two of the fields have grass. So, it's a non-issue here.

 

[Angus]

I don't know that this is true.
I think the school is only required to use federal money evenly and provide equal access

If the Baseball boosters want to spend a million dollars on a baseball field that will have no effect on softball or field hockey or any other girls sport.

Have you seen football fields at all?

I have heard of situations where a team had to turn down money from private donors, since it would create a Title IX issue.

 

[MNDad]

I have heard of situations where a team had to turn down money from private donors, since it would create a Title IX issue.

That's largely a myth driven by opponents to Title IX. Donations can always go to school athletic departments. It's just up to the school district to ensure it doesn't create any disparities. The only way it would have to be turned down is if the donor wanted to dictate how the money is spent.

 

[Ken Krause]

I watched the video, and the softball field overall didn't look so bad to me. I don't know about grates or uneven spots on the field - they filmed during a game so couldn't get on there to walk around - but the field looked pretty comparable to the ones around by me, maybe even better in some cases, and as nice as some college softball diamonds I've seen.

From the description I was expecting the softball diamond to look like it was in the middle of a city park, but they had fences all the way around and the backstop netting looked reasonably high to me. Whether the nets are the same height shouldn't be the issue. The issue should be whether they are sufficiently high to catch most balls popped up backwards. Hard to tell the size of the softball dugouts but they didn't seem that bad to me on the video either. As long as they're big enough to accommodate the size of the team they should be fine. Again, I have seen plenty that looked worse.

As for the lights all I can say is - their HS softball diamond has lights? That's pretty sweet. I can't think of any HS in my area (North suburbs of Chicago) that have lighted fields.

The little bit we saw of the baseball field didn't make it seem that much different. It's not like they had bricks and ivy-covered walls. Maybe more stands, but again if a lot more people go to see baseball over softball they'd need bigger stands.

Not being there I don't know the whole story. But it sure seems like much ado about nothing from what I saw in the video.

 

[Il softball fan]

Bricks and Ivy covered walls would ruin a field anyway....Go Cards.

 

[Angus]

That's largely a myth driven by opponents to Title IX. Donations can always go to school athletic departments. It's just up to the school district to ensure it doesn't create any disparities. The only way it would have to be turned down is if the donor wanted to dictate how the money is spent.

Yes, I think that is exactly the case. A donor wanted, for example, to improve the baseball (or football) stadium and that is allegedly not permissible if the softball stadium is not brought up to the same level. But I think private donors typically want to improve a specific facility, not just give money to the school to use at their own discretion.

 

[CLM265]

After watching the video it looks like their field is fine to play on with maybe a few updates needed.

Just a couple years ago we had our local high school softball team playing in a city park and it was one of the same fields that we had our Little League practices on. I couldn't believe how poor (unusable) the high school softball teams field was that they had to ask to use a city park so that they could practice and play their games. Of course baseball had a very nice fully functional field with cages etc.

One mom spook up, got on TV and low and behold in just a couple years they have a really nice new softball field with fences, turf infield and a fan area that isn't 6 inches deep in mud anymore. It just took someone with a freshman on the team to see how bad it was and get the ball rolling.

 

[MNDad]

I don't know that this is true.
I think the school is only required to use federal money evenly and provide equal access

If the Baseball boosters want to spend a million dollars on a baseball field that will have no effect on softball or field hockey or any other girls sport.

Have you seen football fields at all?

That is incorrect. School districts have to ensure significant disparities don't exist between boys and girls programs as a whole. The source of the money is irrelevant.

 

[MNDad]

Yes, I think that is exactly the case. A donor wanted, for example, to improve the baseball (or football) stadium and that is allegedly not permissible if the softball stadium is not brought up to the same level. But I think private donors typically want to improve a specific facility, not just give money to the school to use at their own discretion.

Football stadiums are generally multi purpose and used by soccer and lacrosse teams. As long as girls are using the facilities too they're ok. A school can accept a donation and upgrade a baseball field without touching the softball field if girls in other sports, say volleyball or gymnastics, have superior facilities. Title IX doesn't say anything about equal expenditures. They just can't upgrade boys facilities and ignore the girls.