Page 116 - Demo

IHSA Affirmative Action Policy for Girls on Boys State Series Teams, continued
7. That schools that fail to initiate or expand girls athletic programs prevent equitable and comparable athletic opportunities for girls.
8. That if girls competed against boys in athletic competition, some girls might be able to beat some boys some of the time, but most boys will be able to beat most girls most of the time. Therefore, girls generally would be eliminated from a school sports program if competition for team membership were open to both boys and girls. The exceptionally talented girl could perhaps survive — and may even surpass some boys in isolated cases. But the physical and competitive needs of the vast majority of girls could not be satisfied by joint membership of boys and girls on the same team.
9. It is important that educators and school administrators have the freedom to prescribe the policies that best serve the needs of some boys and girls in the IHSA member high schools of Illinois. State laws and litigation, which may be well meaning but perhaps focused on a special vested interest or an isolated instance, should be last resort measures to rectify a problem caused by an inappropriate rule or policy.
10. Parameters to permit boys to compete on girls interscholastic athletic teams as well as to permit girls to participate on boys teams would cause irreparable harm to existing and future girls athletic programs in IHSA member schools by allowing boys to replace girls on school athletic teams, especially those in sports in which boys teams are not regularly maintained (i.e., badminton, softball, volleyball, etc.). Further, schools would not be motivated to provide equal and comparable interscholastic athletic programs for girls as well as boys if they could simply accommodate an occasional girl who was sufficiently skilled in a sport to qualify as a member of a boy’s team. Participation opportunities for girls would suffer greatly under such circumstances. We are committed, instead, to promoting and fostering equitable and comparable opportunities for girls in interscholastic athletics and we are convinced the provisions of the IHSA Affirmative Action Policy effectively accomplish this goal.
11. To permit participation on a team by only a given percentage of student-athletes of the opposite sex of students for which the school team is intended would still be a discriminating factor. One boy, as a pitcher on a girl’s softball team, for example, could readily dominate and change the outcome of a girl’s softball game.
12. Being named in the School Code of the State of Illinois as an organization to be specifically consulted, the Illinois High School Association has worked very closely with the Illinois State Board of Education and the General Assembly in the promulgation and implementation of the initial Sex Equity Guidelines and the current Illinois Sex Equity Rules. We believe this specifically appointed role for the Illinois High School Association presents the Association with a compelling governmental interest in making sure that girls have equal access to the athletic state tournament series sponsored by the IHSA.
13. The Illinois Sex Equity Rules, as well as Title IX, require each school to have a written sex equity policy and a written grievance procedure whereby a female student-athlete may pursue complaints of discrimination on the basis of sex in the interscholastic athletic programs offered by a school system. The required grievance procedure must be reasonably communicated to the students and parents in a school system and must provide for an appeal process through the Regional Superintendent to the State Superintendent of Education. We are convinced that if Title IX, the Illinois Sex Equity Rules and the administrative remedies they prescribe are properly implemented and administered; costly and unnecessary litigation on behalf of a female student-athlete in the area of sex discrimination would be virtually eliminated.
14. We believe separate but comparable programs of athletic competition for high school girls and boys are beneficial to both sexes. In the context of this philosophy IHSA has established thirteen athletic state tournaments for girls to provide parity with the fourteen state tournaments the Association currently offers for boys. In addition, IHSA policy provides that when adding or deleting a new state series, equity will be part of the consideration.
15. We believe that unfortunately many female student-athletes who have the ability and are willing to pay the price in terms of long hours of practice and adherence to academic eligibility standards may not be able to participate on an athletic team representing their school. Many schools have been unduly slow to initiate or expand girls athletic programs and thereby might not be complying with the mandates put forth in federal and state laws, specifically Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Illinois Sex Equity Rules of the School Code of the State of Illinois. Even greater denial of equal and comparable opportunities to female athletes may be caused by participation by girls on boys teams where the school does not offer a girls team in a sport. This practice could curtail the establishment of overall equitable and comparable athletic opportunities for girls to participate in school athletic programs.
16 On the basis of the results of their student athletic interest surveys required by both Title IX and the Illinois Sex Equity Rules, schools must allocate funds, facilities, equipment and personnel to girl’s athletics on the basis of the number of participants, squads and contests. Schools should be encouraging the growth of an emerging girls program while striving for the continued good health of the boys program. Girl’s athletic teams should be given no more or no less consideration than boy’s teams.
17. It cannot be denied that if girls competed against boys in athletic competition, some girls might be able to beat some boys some of the time, but most boys will be able to beat most girls most of the time. It must then follow that girls generally would be eliminated from a school sports program if competition for team membership were open to both boys and girls. The exceptionally
—114—