Complaint Charges D.C. Schools With Violating Title IX

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/big-disparities-are-alleged-between-boys-and-girls-sports-in-district-public-schools/2013/06/27/b8df7cd4-def8-11e2-b2d4-ea6d8f477a01_story.html

At Wilson High school, freshman athlete Helen Malhotra spent last fall seeing some girls’ soccer games bumped from the nicer artificial turf fields in favor of boys’ football practice. In the spring, she passed the baseball team playing on a field next to the school as her coach and parents drove heavy softball equipment to a public park and she and her teammates jogged the mile and a half there and back.

“It was so unfair, she said. It makes me feel that the world hasn’t changed that much. Even though people say, ‘Oh, sexism is over, women get equal opportunities.’ It’s not true.”

The disparity in traditional District high schools between the percentage of girls enrolled in school and the girls who participate in sports is not only larger than that of any other public school district in the Washington region, it is wider than many similar urban districts such as Detroit and Boston, federal data show. And the steep gaps in some District schools such as Roosevelt, Ballou and Phelps are far higher than those in a number of schools that the U.S. Education Department has investigated recently for civil rights violations.

On Thursday morning, after several years of unfruitful negotiating, the National Women’s Law Center filed a formal complaint with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights charging District public schools with violating Title IX, the federal law that outlaws sex discrimination in schools and school sports.

The problem is widespread nationally “but these gaps in the District are really steep, said Neena Chaudhry, senior counsel with the National Women’s Law Center, who has worked on Title IX issues for 15 years. At Roosevelt, the gap is 26 percent. That’s a huge red flag. “

The Office of Civil Rights confirmed that it is already investigating another Title IX athletic discrimination complaint against DCPS that was filed in May 2012.

DCPS spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz said school officials couldn’t comment on the specifics of the complaint but said they looked forward to “correcting the record.”

Complaint Charges D.C. Schools With Violating Title IX

Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/big-disparities-are-alleged-between-boys-and-girls-sports-in-district-public-schools/2013/06/27/b8df7cd4-def8-11e2-b2d4-ea6d8f477a01_story.html

At Wilson High school, freshman athlete Helen Malhotra spent last fall seeing some girls’ soccer games bumped from the nicer artificial turf fields in favor of boys’ football practice. In the spring, she passed the baseball team playing on a field next to the school as her coach and parents drove heavy softball equipment to a public park and she and her teammates jogged the mile and a half there and back.

“It was so unfair, she said. It makes me feel that the world hasn’t changed that much. Even though people say, ‘Oh, sexism is over, women get equal opportunities.’ It’s not true.”

The disparity in traditional District high schools between the percentage of girls enrolled in school and the girls who participate in sports is not only larger than that of any other public school district in the Washington region, it is wider than many similar urban districts such as Detroit and Boston, federal data show. And the steep gaps in some District schools such as Roosevelt, Ballou and Phelps are far higher than those in a number of schools that the U.S. Education Department has investigated recently for civil rights violations.

On Thursday morning, after several years of unfruitful negotiating, the National Women’s Law Center filed a formal complaint with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights charging District public schools with violating Title IX, the federal law that outlaws sex discrimination in schools and school sports.

The problem is widespread nationally “but these gaps in the District are really steep, said Neena Chaudhry, senior counsel with the National Women’s Law Center, who has worked on Title IX issues for 15 years. At Roosevelt, the gap is 26 percent. That’s a huge red flag. ”

The Office of Civil Rights confirmed that it is already investigating another Title IX athletic discrimination complaint against DCPS that was filed in May 2012.

DCPS spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz said school officials couldn’t comment on the specifics of the complaint but said they looked forward to “correcting the record.”