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April 25, 2008 09:25 pm
Mercer parents seek injunction alleging Title IX violation
The parents of at least two Mercer County students filed a civil complaint at U.S. District Court in Bluefield, alleging that Mercer County Schools have violated Title IX .
By BILL ARCHER
CNHI News Service
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — The parents of at least two Mercer County students filed a civil complaint at U.S. District Court in Bluefield, alleging that Mercer County Schools have violated Title IX of the federal Education Amendment of 1972 by “illegally denying plaintiffs’ daughters the equal treatment and benefits that must necessarily accompany an equal opportunity to participate in athletics.”
The names of the plaintiffs are expressed as initials C.L., and J.W., in the complaint to protect the identities of the students who are both identified as female teenagers who attend Princeton Senior High School and collectively participate in softball, volleyball and basketball. The complaint names the school system, the Mercer County Board of Education, Dr. Deborah S. Akers, county school superintendent and Does 1-50.
“We haven’t received the complaint yet,” Akers said Friday morning. “When we do, we will forward it to the state Board of Education and it will be assigned to a lawyer.” Akers said that it is the Mercer County Board of Education’s policy not to comment on pending or active litigation.
The complaint details the provisions of Title IX to the facts of the case including the rule’s requirements that all students should be provided the same access to athletic benefits regardless of gender, and cites the rights of the plaintiffs under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that prohibits states from denying “any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The plaintiffs asked the court for an injunction to prevent their minor daughters from suffering “irreparable harm” because they don’t have the same access to school-sponsored athletics as their male classmates.
“Mercer County Public Schools funds athletics in a manner that discriminates against Plaintiffs’ daughters and other female athletes,” according to the 19-page civil complaint filed Thursday at U.S. District Court in Bluefield. The Oklahoma-based Schiller Law Firm and lawyers Samuel J. Schiller of Cookeville, Tenn., and Ray Yasser of Tulsa, Okla., are representing the plaintiffs.
“Mercer County Public Schools provides male athletes with equipment and supplies in a manner that discriminates against female athletes,” according to the complaint. “For example, the softball team does not have the access to batting cages, hitting facilities and pitching machines provided to the baseball team. As a further example, softball parents are required to purchase, either out of their own pockets or through fundraisers, practice and game uniforms that parents of male athletes are not required to purchase.
“In addition, softball parents are required to pay for their child’s footwear, while football parents are not required to pay for their child’s footwear,” the complaint alleged. “In the case of volleyball, the school has refused to pay for the full uniform for volleyball players. The coach and/or players have been required to pay for part of the uniforms and even the tape to tape the floor,” the complaint alleges.
There are several pages of individual complaints alleging disparity between the way the school allegedly treats male and female athletes that include alleged travel disparities, access to assistant coaches along with other specific complaints.
The plaintiffs asked the court to find that the defendants have a continuing pattern of discriminating against female students and to enter a permanent injunction against the practice. The plaintiffs asked the court to award reasonable attorneys’ fees and hold the trial on the matter in Bluefield.
Bill Archer writes for the Bluefield (W.Va.) Daily Telegraph.
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