There are many things I would like to say about the article,
”
San Juan defends girls sports policy.
”
First of all,
”
school officials
”
stated that,
”
(Girls) were turned down just like the boys would have been,
because the season had already started.
”
Well, I guess these
”
officials
”
didn’t know that a female student did request to be on the team,
she even showed up for a practice! And it WAS at the beginning of
the season. I guess those officials should have asked Coach Chew
before saying this, because Chew should remember that
encounter.
There are many things I would like to say about the article, “San Juan defends girls sports policy.”
First of all, “school officials” stated that, “(Girls) were turned down just like the boys would have been, because the season had already started.” Well, I guess these “officials” didn’t know that a female student did request to be on the team, she even showed up for a practice! And it WAS at the beginning of the season. I guess those officials should have asked Coach Chew before saying this, because Chew should remember that encounter.
Also (this is just a comment), if I remember correctly, one of your previous articles quoted Joe Hudson saying, “Money is not an issue. It never has been,” in the Oct. 17 article, “This battle is off the field.” So if money “is not an issue,” then why does the Friday Nov. 14 article quote him saying, “We just don’t have the funding or the money.”
I agree with Joyce Medeiros when she states that, “Title IX was not written to make sports teams co-ed. It’s just about giving everyone an opportunity to play.”
That is absolutely right. Title IX wasn’t made to make teams co-ed. But in this case, to be able to give, “…everyone an opportunity to play,” a co-ed team is required. Yes, it’s true that there are currently three all-girls’ teams and three all-boys teams. Why change that?
The boys don’t have their own volleyball team like the girls do, so why add an all girls’ flag football team when the teams are equal? Well, (and Title IX is all about opportunity) the boys do have a chance to play volleyball on an additional co-ed volleyball team. So the boys have the opportunity to play every single sport that SJB school offers. Only the girls don’t have a chance to play on one of the teams: Flag-football. So the only solution to balance out the opportunities in sports teams is to create an additional co-ed flag football team, so that the single gender teams aren’t unbalanced and everyone gets an opportunity to play every sport!
Another thing is, “Also, the San Benito Athletic League bylaws only allow boys to play on flag football teams. If a girl wanted to play, she would need prior approval by a majority vote of all athletic directors in the league.” If this is true, I personally think that the school should have told us this at the beginning of the season so that any girl who wanted to play would at least have a chance. Why are they just barely telling us this now?
Stephani Waidelich,
San Juan School
