Editorial: Treat girls fairly on athletic fields

In 2002, the Title IX amendment of the Higher Education Act was renamed the “Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act” in honor of the late Hawaii congresswoman who co-authored and championed the legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity.

Last week, civil rights attorneys stood near a just-dedicated life-sized bronze sculpture of Mink in Honolulu to announce the filing of a lawsuit in federal court seeking to end discrimination against female athletes in Hawaii’s public schools.

It’s shameful that more than four decades after Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, glaring disparities in the handling of girls and boys sports linger on. The compliance deadline, which applies to schools that receive federal funds, was in 1978 for secondary schools.

Since then, the state Department of Education has been repeatedly dinged for deficiencies. In the recent class-action suit, the ACLU of Hawaii, along with Legal Aid at Work, and Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP, represent two student-athletes at the state’s largest secondary school, Campbell High.

Under Title IX, school sports teams are tagged as educational programs and activities. While the law does not mandate identical team offerings for boys and girls, it does require overall equal opportunity to play. It also requires equal treatment tied to the divvying up of resources such as locker rooms and practice fields and other matters — for example, scheduling of games and practice times.

These requirements yield countless benefits. Before Title IX, 300,000 girls nationwide participated in high school sports yearly, versus today’s count of 3.5 million. It’s heartening that generations of women now credit team participation with boosting self-confidence and resilience as well as helping in development of other life skills.

While the Education Department continues to commit funding for capital improvements and recently created 15 “equity specialist” positions to guide schools on compliance matters, much Title IX work remains. The lawsuit spotlights some stinging shortcomings, blaming the DOE and the Oahu Interscholastic Association, which plays a role in administering some athletics regulations and the scheduling of competition slots.

At Campbell High, for example, it maintains that boys teams have long had exclusive access to a stand-alone locker room in which they can store gear, shower, use restrooms and hold team meetings. Girls teams, meanwhile, have no such facility — no designated full-size lockers or showers or changing area. And no office near athletic fields.

Among the reported upshots: changing into athletic clothes in makeshift spots such as at bleachers, with students shielding one another for a shred of privacy; hauling athletic gear through the school day; and restroom options often limited to using run-down porta-potties or dashing the distance of about two football fields to the nearest permanent restroom facilities.

The stark differences send an unacceptable “less than” message.

In February, the ACLU had issued a demand letter, pointing to Title IX violations. The local nonprofit’s executive director, Joshua Wisch, said the DOE’s subsequent failure to produce a “substantive plan” to comply with the law prompted the suit — its second in less than a decade. In 2010, the ACLU won a lawsuit against the DOE over gender inequities in the girls’ softball program at Maui’s Baldwin High School.

Stalled or painfully slow movement toward reasonable equity is a slap in the face of progress. Mink, who served a total of 13 sessions in the U.S. House, was a tenacious advocate for equality and realizing the full promise of the American dream. Through Title IX, the Maui native and the law’s other supporters touched off positive change.

Hawaii, and the nation, owe Mink a debt of gratitude — and it can best be honored by compliance with the landmark law.