Title IX: Good News/Bad News
The Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision yesterday holding that Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools and colleges, protected whistleblowers from retaliation. Plaintiff Roderick Jackson had coached the girls' basketball team in a Birmingham, Ala., until he spoke out about the inequities between the girls' and boys' programs. Then he was dismissed.
"Retaliation against a person because that person has complained of sex discrimination is another form of intentional sex discrimination," wrote Justice O'Connor in the majority opinion.
Well, umm, yeah... duh. Doesn't that seem obvious? But in the Bush-whacked world that we live in, and in the often surreal rulings of the Court regarding discrimination claims, I take nothing for granted. (Too often, the Court seems to ignore what I see as obvious discrimination in its race-blind or gender-blind law-making.)
In any case, this is good news for us all, since it's teachers and administrators who are often in the position to complain about sex discrimination in boys' and girls' programs, and this protects them from retaliation when they do speak out. Read the full New York Times article about it. Or the full opinion, Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Ed.
The bad news is, as always, the twisted, evil policies of the Bush administration. (And while you may think that the use of the word 'evil' is hyperbole, I assure you, it's not. The policies of this administration are being put in place to guarantee the endless future institutionalization of straight, white, American, male privilege. Be scared. Be very, very scared.)
The particular injustice I'm talking about is the new Department of Education (of Postcards from Buster infamy) policy modifying the criteria used to monitor school compliance with Title IX. With the new policy, schools can use the results of email surveys to undergraduate students to show that there is "insufficient interest to support an additional varsity team for the underrepresented sex" to show a "presumption of compliance."
That means that schools can now use surveys that, no doubt, thousands of students delete or ignore, to show that there is no interest in a particular women's program. Plus, how can women be interested in sports that they may have never had the opportunity to play in high school, like lacrosse or crew or soccer? This policy just reinforces the historic discrimination that girls continue to face in their elementary and high schools, like Coach Jackson in Alabama.
And, it shifts the burden to women students to prove that the school does not provide equitable athletic opportunities. This is a radical change from 20 years of policy guidance from the Department -- 20 years that have made Title IX effective.
Disgusted? I am. It's precisely because of Title IX's effectiveness that record numbers of girls are involved in athletics today, that we have vibrant professional women's tennis and golf tours, that we have a pro women's basketball league. They are the result of the equity in athletics that has begun to come about from Title IX.
And we still have miles to go is going to make it. According to the Feminist Majority, currently, young women make up 53 percent of the student body in Division One colleges and universities, but they receive only 41 percent of the athletic opportunities, 36 percent of the athletic budgets, and 32 percent of the recruitment budget.
Read the full letter from the Dept. of Education or a good article about it from the Feminist Daily News.
"Retaliation against a person because that person has complained of sex discrimination is another form of intentional sex discrimination," wrote Justice O'Connor in the majority opinion.
Well, umm, yeah... duh. Doesn't that seem obvious? But in the Bush-whacked world that we live in, and in the often surreal rulings of the Court regarding discrimination claims, I take nothing for granted. (Too often, the Court seems to ignore what I see as obvious discrimination in its race-blind or gender-blind law-making.)
In any case, this is good news for us all, since it's teachers and administrators who are often in the position to complain about sex discrimination in boys' and girls' programs, and this protects them from retaliation when they do speak out. Read the full New York Times article about it. Or the full opinion, Jackson v. Birmingham Bd. of Ed.
The bad news is, as always, the twisted, evil policies of the Bush administration. (And while you may think that the use of the word 'evil' is hyperbole, I assure you, it's not. The policies of this administration are being put in place to guarantee the endless future institutionalization of straight, white, American, male privilege. Be scared. Be very, very scared.)
The particular injustice I'm talking about is the new Department of Education (of Postcards from Buster infamy) policy modifying the criteria used to monitor school compliance with Title IX. With the new policy, schools can use the results of email surveys to undergraduate students to show that there is "insufficient interest to support an additional varsity team for the underrepresented sex" to show a "presumption of compliance."
That means that schools can now use surveys that, no doubt, thousands of students delete or ignore, to show that there is no interest in a particular women's program. Plus, how can women be interested in sports that they may have never had the opportunity to play in high school, like lacrosse or crew or soccer? This policy just reinforces the historic discrimination that girls continue to face in their elementary and high schools, like Coach Jackson in Alabama.
And, it shifts the burden to women students to prove that the school does not provide equitable athletic opportunities. This is a radical change from 20 years of policy guidance from the Department -- 20 years that have made Title IX effective.
Disgusted? I am. It's precisely because of Title IX's effectiveness that record numbers of girls are involved in athletics today, that we have vibrant professional women's tennis and golf tours, that we have a pro women's basketball league. They are the result of the equity in athletics that has begun to come about from Title IX.
And we still have miles to go is going to make it. According to the Feminist Majority, currently, young women make up 53 percent of the student body in Division One colleges and universities, but they receive only 41 percent of the athletic opportunities, 36 percent of the athletic budgets, and 32 percent of the recruitment budget.
Read the full letter from the Dept. of Education or a good article about it from the Feminist Daily News.
posted by Me at 12:12 PM
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