American football is an over-hyped high school sport that is primarily played in the US. It is not an international sport like soccer that is called football in the rest of the world. In addition, Cheerleading is a 'cosmetic sport' like bodybuilding in which appearance is as important as athletic ability. If the Florida High School Athletic Association had been a little more 'with it' they might have fully funded women's soccer in high school or field hockey. Football games can certainly be conducted without cheerleaders. In addition, female sports may be more important that male in the US. Without our female athletes the US would do poorly in the Olympics.
WASHINGTON – The White House will be holding a roundtable on the 37th Anniversary of Title IX featuring Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and an all-star line-up of women athletes and scientists.
In addition to the roundtable participants, which include Billie Jean King and Dominique Dawes, 30 local high school aged girls will be in the audience along with several professional athletes and well-known Title IX advocates. The roundtable is being held tomorrow, Tuesday, June 23, at 2:30 PM, and several of the participants will be available for questions after the event.
The roundtable will also be streamed live on the web both at WhiteHouse.gov/live, and as part of an innovative Facebook application that allows users to both watch the live-stream and be part of an online chat about the roundtable simultaneously.
The roundtable will be kept up to date during the event on the comments and questions coming in through the chat, which will take place at this address: http://apps.facebook.com/whitehouselive/. Non-facebook users can also submit their comments and questions at a special comment form that the White House will be monitoring during the event at the standard live-stream address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/
After the Roundtable, Ms. King, Ms. Dawes and others will hold a media availability at the stakeout location outside of the West Wing. The Roundtable is expected to run for an hour, and the availability will begin shortly after the Roundtable concludes.
Title IX fight in Florida
The fight over high school sports cuts has taken a new turn in Florida. On Tuesday, attorneys representing the group Florida Parents for Athletic Equity filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging schedule reductions passed by the Florida High School Athletic Association in April.
Policy 6 passed by a 9-6 vote and cut the number of varsity games teams could play by 20 percent for all sports except football and competitive cheerleading. Junior varsity schedules were cut by 40 percent.
The decision to exempt varsity football,the sport with the largest number of male participants, has prompted critics to claim the reductions violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting gender discrimination in sports and other educational programs.
Earlier this month, Title IX advocate and Jacksonville attorney Nancy Hogshead-Makar spoke with FHSAA executive director Roger Dearing in hopes of finding a compromise to the group's gender equity concerns.
Last week, proposals were discussed that would have allowed individual schools to decide on either cutting football games or adding girls' sports contests.
No decision was reached however, prompting Tuesday's filing.
"We tried everything we could to get the FHSAA to respond without a lawsuit," said Miami attorney David Baron, who is involved with the case. "It was not our wish to litigate. It was our wish to show them the law and have them comply.
The motion, filed on behalf of six parents from across Florida, asks for the game reductions to be rescinded or applied equally.
It also requests an injunction keeping the FHSAA from applying the cuts during the upcoming school year.
Many schools have already put together shortened schedules. In South Florida, officials expect Broward County to keep the schedule reductions.
Before April's vote, the school board welcomed the cuts saying they were a compromise that helped save individual sports like boys' volleyball, water polo, golf and tennis.
"We feel like there's no turning back," said Damian Huttenhoff, the county's director of athletics and activities. "Our new gender equity numbers came out and countywide, we're 50-50. We increased our female participation this year by 800 athletes. We feel we're in a strong position."
Christy Cabrera Chirinos can be reached at ccabrera@SunSentinel.com.
www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Advisory-Valerie-Jarrett-and-Education-Secretary-Arne-Duncan-to-Hold-White-House-Roundtable-on-Title-IX/
www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/highschool/broward/sfl-title-ix-lawsuit-s061709,0,5617890.story
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