Young girls love soccer, too. Photo by Tony Quinn.
A complaint has been filed against D.C. Public Schools accusing the system of not giving female athletes the same opportunities as their male classmates.
The National Women’s Law Center, the nonprofit organization that filed the Title IX complaint, reports that D.C. schools lack teams and adequate facilities for girls, and provide them with less qualified coaches.
The report says that there’s a gap between the percentage of girls enrolled at these schools and the percentage of girls who play sports: “For example, Wilson High School reports a 19 percentage point gap between the percentage of girls enrolled (52.4 percent) and the percentage of athletes who are girls (33.6 percent). If Wilson High School provided girls with 52.4 percent of the athletic opportunities, an additional 125 girls would be able play sports.”
The gap ranges from six to 26 percent at D.C. schools. If the opportunity gap was closed at all schools, 668 additional girls could play sports, according to the report.
The disparity between proper equipment for male and female athletes is even starker. Parents told the NWLC that female soccer players at School Without Walls, located in Foggy Bottom, “have been forced to compete in uniforms with numbers that are affixed with duct tape.”
To complete the report, the National Women’s Law Center and Crowell & Moring (a law firm in the news for another report released this week) looked at D.C. public school data and interviewed parents.
Title IX requires any institution receiving federal money to provide “equal participation opportunities” to athletes.
In a statement. D.C. Public Schools press secretary Melissa Salmanowitz said they are “proud of the steps we have taken to create opportunities for our female student-athletes.”
“Over the past several years, we have pursued an aggressive agenda to help ensure our female student-athletes are able to compete in a variety of athletics,” the statement said. “While we can’t comment on the specifics of this case, we are confident in the facts and look forward to correcting the record.”
