Spokane7
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June 10, 2011 in City
Feds to look into Title IX practices at 125 Wash. school districts
OLYMPIA – Federal officials are investigating whether more than 100 school districts across the state are discriminating against girls in their athletic programs.
Representatives of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office For Civil Rights will meet with state education officials next week to follow up on complaints that districts are violating Title IX, the federal rules that require equal treatment for women’s sports. The complaints date back to 2004 and involve districts all over the state.
Spokesmen for both the Education Department and the state’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction confirmed this week the meetings are scheduled but said privacy rules prevent them from saying much more at this point.
The civil rights office has “initiated a compliance review” involving Title IX, the 1972 law that requires schools provide equal opportunity for the athletic interests of students of both sexes, Jim Bradshaw of the U.S. Education Department said.
“The review will examine whether the OSPI is administering its responsibilities toward the school districts … or aiding or perpetuating discrimination with respect to athletic participation opportunities by providing significant assistance to schools that do not comply with this requirement,” Bradshaw said in a prepared statement.
Nathan Olson, a spokesman for the state school system, said the federal agency will be looking into complaints that 125 school districts aren’t complying with the law. The complaints are based on public records requests, he said.
OSPI has had complaints about sexual discrimination against female athletes alleging problems of inadequate numbers of teams, field sizes or locker room facilities, Olson said. “We’ve never had anything like this before, alleging 125 violations.”
Earlier this week, news organizations around the state were sent an anonymous email with a copy of a proposed lawsuit against the state and the school districts for Title IX violations involving 186 different schools. The proposal appears to be a qui tam lawsuit, which can be brought by a whistle-blower on behalf of the federal government to expose fraud, and seeks billions of dollars in damages from the state. It’s not signed and the complainant’s name is omitted from the copy sent to news organizations.
It’s not immediately clear if the proposed lawsuit is related to allegations in the Department of Education’s compliance review.
Supermajority for taxes unconstitutional, judge rules 
bez233 on June 10 at 7:21 a.m.
The proposal appears to be a qui tam lawsuit, which can be brought by a whistle-blower on behalf of the federal government to expose fraud, and seeks billions of dollars in damages from the state”
there’s the FEDS again, they can’t take care of them selves and riddled with fraud but first in line to attack others.
Do as the feds say not as they do…. what will they do with the money if they get it?
jddavis on June 10 at 8:03 a.m.
Was the SR sent a copy of the lawsuit? Are any of the 125 districts named in the Spokane area?
Mr_Incredible on June 10 at 8:37 a.m.
bez233
I thought you were going to make a thoughtful comment since you highlited an important aspect of this case being a Qui Tam lawsuit, but then your comment afterwards shows your ignorance.
A qui tam lawsuit is brought on BEHALF of the federal government by a private party. The federal government, is therefore, a plaintiff in name only in the lawsuit.
The other parts of the article talk about US Department of Education investigation which is different from the lawsuit.
I guess these procedural aspects of the law are too confusing to follow so instead of truly trying to understand what the article is saying, its just your ammunition to make one more attempt to say the Government shouldn’t be enforcing law A because law B is a bigger priority to You. Maybe in your free time you can make a list of all the laws the government should and shouldn’t enforce due to the economy/debt ceiling/jobs/wars etc. being a bigger priority.
karlmjohanson on June 10 at 8:49 a.m.
Title IX does not require renovation of existing facilities. For example, if locker rooms are not equal but cannot be shared or traded year to year due to privacy issues then the district has to demonstrate an effort to mitigate as much as possible and report those activities.
ManleyPointer on June 10 at 8:57 a.m.
I don’t believe that all laws, regulations and rules promulgated by the federal government are equally important, nor do I believe that all ought to be pursued with equal vigor (unlike Mr. I, I don’t see this concern reflected in bez233’s post, so I can’t say that I share his belief). I do believe that states should comply with Title IX, but I can’t believe that enforcement of these provisions is SO important during this economic crisis that we send teams of feds from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights out to consume state resources to figure out if they should be going after the state for BILLIONS of dollars in damages. But I guess, now that the Department of Education commands SWAT teams, we’d better cooperate or else……
Mr_Incredible on June 10 at 9:39 a.m.
Manly Pointer:
If the Department of Edcuation can’t enforcement Title IX because the focus should be on the economic crisis, what should they be doing? These people are educators, not economists, your post implies that there is some opporutnity cost in allowing the Department of Education to do their job. That doesn’t make any sense in logic or in fact.
The solution you seem to implying is that all aspects of the governemnt you don’t deem necessary should be shut down until we figure out what to do about the economic crisis. Like if only the Department of Education wasn’t out there enforcing Title IX, we’d have the capacity to finally solve unemployment. Poppycock.
eagleproducer on June 10 at 9:42 a.m.
manly: This law is almost forty years old. It’s not like the economic crises caused the disparity of money being spent on girls sports compared with boys.
I’ve got a great solution: End athletics in public schools. It will eliminate the “Joe Jock” coaches, errrrrrrrrr, teachers and rid the school of the hyper-competitive attitude that stains the middle school/high school experience for many students. We should be educating children, not using our schools as proving grounds for sports.
ManleyPointer on June 10 at 9:56 a.m.
eagle: I’ve got an even BETTER solution: shut down the Department of Education and turn education over to the people whose children are being educated. I’m sure sports would thrive in spite of such a move, and certainly our children would be better educated.
Mr. I: you think these bureaucrats from the Department of Education are EDUCATORS?!?!?!? I guess that explains the rest of your post.
As an aside, it is NOT the government’s job to “solve” unemployment. That is the role of the private sector in a capitalist economy.
hawken on June 10 at 11:00 a.m.
Manly nailed the problem.
Shut down the DOE and let the local school boards make those decisions.
What exactly does the DOE do that is worth $80 billion a year?
SMARTGUY on June 10 at 4:59 p.m.
So the federal governments only “job” is immigration?