Title IX Scuttles High School Basketball Booster Club’s Plans in Pennsylvania

The parents of the boys who play for the Elk Lake (Pa.) High School Basketball Team want to be able to send their kids to a basketball camp. The problem: money. So the parents approached the school board to ask if they could charge admission to games to raise the funds.

Their plan: students would be charged $1, adults $2. They’d even sell season passes to families for the princely sum of $10 per season.

The school board rejected the application. The reason: Title IX:

Superintendent William Bush commended the club for attending the meeting to give suggestions but said that he had some concerns.

“A few things strike me about this,” Bush said. “The proposal is only for boys’ basketball, and with Title IX there may be some legal ramifications if we didn’t do the same for the girls’ team.”

Title IX is a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational institutions which is part of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972.

Bush said that the district may have to look into charging for other sports if it decided to let the booster club charge for the boys’ games.

“We don’t want anything to be seen as preferential treatment,” Bush said.

He also noted that the district would end up cutting profit margins from charging for the games because a person would have to be hired to collect money at games.

“The district has had a lot of input from people that are appreciative about not paying for admission,” Bush said.

He also noted that if an admission charge was taken at the door it would not go directly to the basketball team, but it would be put into the general fund.

I wonder what the architects of Title IX would think if they discovered that their landmark law to guarantee equal access to higher education was being used to bully a high school booster club?

No Replies to "Title IX Scuttles High School Basketball Booster Club's Plans in Pennsylvania"