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Title: Girl expelled after suing school to be on boys' basketball team
Source:
New York Post
URL Source: http://nypost.com/2017/02/02/girl-e ... to-be-on-boys-basketball-team/
Published: Feb 2, 2017
Author: Kevin Kernan and Joe Tacopino
Post Date: 2017-02-02 13:22:12 by Hondo68
Keywords: St. Theresa, Catholic school, NJ State, Interscholastic Athletic Assoc
Views: 3112
Comments: 5
The New Jersey seventh-grader whose family sued the Catholic school that refused to let her play basketball on the boys team was abruptly expelled from her middle school Wednesday. The parents of 12-year-old Sydney Phillips were sent a letter from an Archdiocese of Newark lawyer saying that both Sydney and her sister Kaitlyn should not attend St. Theresa “tomorrow morning or any day thereafter.” “I’m furious,” the girls’ dad, Scott Phillips, said Wednesday night. “This is unbelievable. We just wanted her to play basketball.” The Phillips family was hoping Sydney would be able to play with the boys after the girls team was disbanded last school year. When the Kenilworth school nixed that idea, her dad took legal action against the archdiocese and St. Theresa. Apparently the school charter maintains that it can boot a student whose family brings a suit against it. The Phillips family learned of the shocking decision at a training facility for the WNBA’s New York Liberty, where Sydney had been invited to watch the professional women’s team practice. “I am disgusted. How dare them? What did Katy do? What did Sydney do?” Scott asked. “I don’t know what we’re going to do next, but we’re still going to fight.” Last month, a New Jersey judge denied Sydney’s request to force St. Theresa to let her play, claiming there was just not enough evidence to upend the “status quo.” The school reportedly is protected from bias claims because of its religious status. However, the family filed an appeal that claims the archdiocese’s athletic leagues are actually governed by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. The rules for that association clearly state that girls should be allowed to try out for a boys team when there’s no comparable girls team. However, an association spokesperson told The Post that the ruling applies only to high school students. A lawyer for the archdiocese did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday night. SEE ALSO
Richard Harbus
St. Theresa School in Kenilworth, NJRichard Harbus
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 4.
#1. To: hondo68 (#0)
"Just wanted"?? Oh, no. You went way beyond "just wanted". You sued the school and the Archdiocese and when you lost you filed an appeal.
Instead of sueing the school & the Archdiocese, why didn't they try to organize a girls basketball team ? If that was my daughter, that's what I would have done. I guess no settlement money or publicity in that.
My guess is that most girls in that school aren't interested. Now, if she was attending a public school, Title IX could be used to force the school to establish a girl's basketball team. The downside to that is that if they couldn't get enough girls interested, the school would be forced to eliminate the boy's basketball team to maintain parity. The solution? Pull her out of Catholic school and enroll her in public school (no, not as a teacher). She'd get a shitty education, but she'd be able to play and be an "aspiring WNBA star".
There are no replies to Comment # 4. End Trace Mode for Comment # 4.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest“This is unbelievable. We just wanted her to play basketball.”
#2. To: misterwhite (#1)
#4. To: Stoner (#2)
"Instead of sueing the school & the Archdiocese, why didn't they try to organize a girls basketball team ? If that was my daughter, that's what I would have done."
Replies to Comment # 4.
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