Over the years, women (and some men!) have filed thousands of Title IX lawsuits claiming discrimination. It’s safe to say that 99.9999 percent of these lawsuits are settled before they go to court. But one major lawsuit in Hawaii might eventually make it to trial.
In December 2018, female athletes at James Campbell High School in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, filed a lawsuit saying they were being treated unequally. Some examples they gave:
* Female athletes didn’t have a locker room, showers or bathrooms.
* With no lockers, girls had to lug their gear around with them and wear their athletic gear all day at school, or have to change under the bleachers.
* The portable toilets at the field were often locked to prevent vandalism. The girls would have to hike a quarter mile to a fast food restaurant or gas station to use a bathroom, or else relieve themselves behind bushes. They dehydrated themselves to avoid the humiliation, a dangerous thing to do in Hawaii’s hot climate.
* Some women’s teams had no coach.
* Girls often had to use fields late at night after the boys were finished.
* The girls only played locally, not around the country, like the boys. When they played tournaments, they weren’t allowed to stay overnight in hotels, like the boys did. They didn’t have time to shower or eat, or else they’d miss their connection home.
Meanwhile, of course, the male athletes had all of this and more. Just for context, we’re talking about inequities that persist 46 years after the passage of Title IX.
It’s all of us
One of the women who brought the suit, Ashley Badis, experienced the discrimination firsthand as a member of the water polo team. Her team had to practice in the ocean, battling winds and choppy waves, because they didn’t have practice time in the pool.
But when she started talking to other girls, she soon realized that the problem was more widespread than just one team.
“Hearing how many concerns and complaints that they had — it made me feel like I’m not alone in this, but it’s so wrong that we’re all being treated like this,” Ashley said.*
The suit also accuses high school administrators of retaliating against the girls who initiated the suit. Although the girls are identified only by initials in the lawsuit, the school ferreted out their names and warned faculty members to be cautious around them.
Ashley says that school officials repeatedly threatened to cancel the girls’ water polo season. They claimed that some of the program’s medical and consent forms were missing, even though every team member had submitted her forms.
Let’s be reasonable
For its part, the school claims that it is making “reasonable efforts” to address inequities. They built a new baseball and softball field with some lockers for the girls, or the girls have the use of the boys locker room. The state has kicked in $6 million, in part to construct a girls locker room. But in a dig at the girls who brought the lawsuit, the school says they aren’t due anything retroactively.
Ashley is now 21 and at the University of Hawaii. That’s the way it is with these lawsuits. They drag on and on, leaving the original plaintiffs in the dust.
What ho, Patsy Mink!
It’s sad that the discriminatory treatment is being claimed in the year of Title IX’s 50th anniversary. But it’s also ironic that the battle is raging in the state of Hawaii. Title IX was the brainchild of several members of the U.S. House of Representatives, most notably Rep. Patsy Mink, the revered legislator from Hawaii. In fact, the act was renamed for her in 2002, the year she died.
In July, a federal judge ruled that the case can proceed as a class action lawsuit. The outcome of the suit could have wide-ranging consequences. Most Title IX lawsuits have been brought against colleges and universities. Discrimination at high schools and lower grades has hardly been addressed.
“What strikes me in this 50th anniversary year is just how little we actually know about what is going on in the high school space,” said Ellen J. Staurowsky, a professor of sports media at Ithaca College. “This case has the potential to really be a wake-up call for schools that continue to ignore the law and don’t take it seriously.”
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* David W. Chen, “Sex Discrimination Case in Hawaii Could Change High School Sports Across the U.S.,” The New York Times (October 22, 2022). Both quotes in the post come from this article. It was surprisingly difficult to find details of the lawsuit in the media. I imagine the high school is pretty happy about that.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ashley Badis (right) with her sister Alexis, also a water polo player. Marie Eriel Hobro for The New York Times