Breaking down the law: WHS talks Title IX

When you hear “Title IX,” what do you think of? Maybe you have it written down in your notes from your United States History class. Maybe you’ve sat through a wellness class with administration to learn about educational equity. Or maybe you’ve sat in on a conversations about one of the most serious topics for a young student: sexual assault.

All of the examples above are instances where the Title IX law comes into play. However, the law stretches even further, and places a high emphasis on equality for federally funded sports teams.

On June 23, 1972 women across the country triumphed over the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which were signed into law by former president Richard Nixon. This law prohibited discrimination based on sex in federally funded activities or programs in schools.

In March of that same year, the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress, entailing a guarantee of equal legal rights for all citizens, regardless of sex. However, a surge in conservative backlash against feminism resulted in the failure of this Amendment to be ratified by the states, as it only passed in 35 out of the 38 states, just shy of the ¾ requirement.

As a result, the wage gap between men and women has continued into the present day. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2020, on average women earn 82 cents to every dollar to their male counterparts. Throughout the past few decades, many women, specifically in professional sports, have worked relentlessly to reach what they expressed as the bare minimum: equal pay.

This past March – after years of persistence in petitioning USSF – the four time World Cup champions in the United States Women’s National Soccer Team achieved equal pay.

Likewise, in the 2021 March Madness, the collegiate women’s team posted about their grievances in regards to the disparity of the mens and women’s weight rooms. While the men’s teams enjoyed a large space equipped with vast training equipment, the women’s teams were provided with a mere stack of dumbbells. After the controversy took over social media that March, the heads of the NCAA corrected their mistake and vowed to provide the female athletes with adequate and equal facilities to the men.

While these steps represent relentless female activism that ultimately had a positive result, they don’t technically fall under the category of Title IX, which only includes federally funded programs. However, many express that breaches of Title IX often stay more under the radar than national headlines like these, as it is handled at the local level.

“With the NCAA Women’s March Madness it was addressed, in my opinion, because it was all over the media, but when it’s smaller instances and people with not a lot of power are speaking up it does go unaddressed,” junior swimmer and softball captain Maya Lee said.

Here at Wayland High School, issues regarding Title IX are presented to the Title IX Coordinator, whose job is to work to enforce gender equity and to handle reported violations of Title IX to ensure that gender equity is being enforced in all athletics at WHS.

“Every school is required to have a Title IX Coordinator, a specific staff member whose job it is to handle any Title IX issues or complaints,” Assistant Athletic Director Erin Ryan said. “So, we would escalate that to him because it’s his job to assist with the facilitation of those, the management of them, any issues that come and any questions or concerns.”

Many have expressed the necessity for this position and the crucial role that the coordinator plays in the process of upholding and handling the Title IX laws at Wayland schools.

“Depending on who you ask and when you ask, you could get a different interpretation from different people,” Ryan said. “It’s debated heavily, so I think that is part of why any school, so colleges and high schools that receive federal funds, are required to have a Title IX Coordinator. So we would handle it to the extent we could, but if it was presented as an issue and it needed to be escalated then it would go to him.”

Despite the concurrence that a Title IX coordinator is beneficial, many – specifically students – hold little knowledge of the role and even presence of the Title IX coordinator. However, after learning of their presence, many feel that this role should be utilized to promote change.

“I feel like it’s good to get it known that [the Title IX Coordinator] is a job because if people are experiencing [violations of Title IX] at Wayland High School, they will know who to go to to make change,” Lee said. “I feel like people knowing that there is someone out there and that it is their job to make sure that Title IX is being followed will open our eyes to if it’s actually a problem here.”

Throughout the years, Wayland High School has witnessed immense changes in its athletic department. Across the nation, students’ athletic interests aren’t always met with the specific programs that are offered at their school. Unlike other sports that offer both a girls and boys program, some teams are dominated by a single gender.

“Generally, any educational program that receives federal funding must have equal opportunities for men and women,” junior baseball player and golf captain Austin Russell said. “Here at WHS, we have teams like boys and girls tennis, which gives boys and girls equal opportunities to compete. However, teams like golf have no boys or girls team, instead, it is a co-ed team.”

On a technical level, teams are considered co-ed programs if there aren’t two teams created, even if they are mostly dominated by a singular gender. At WHS, there are three teams in particular who have experienced immense change and immersion in the past few years. These are the welcoming of boys on the field hockey team, girls on the wrestling team and a girl on the golf team.

“A lot of people don’t know this, but I was the girls head lacrosse coach here, so again coaching girls and guys sports and trying to do what is right for both of them,” Wellness Department Head and football/wrestling coach Scott Parseghian said. “I would say that even with the guys now playing field hockey and stuff like that, there’s a lot of different talk about what is right and what is wrong here. Talking as the wrestling coach, we have girls who are on the team now just about every year. So, I think Title IX over the past 10 years has really switched here at Wayland High School and the equity of having enough teams and also now kids joining teams if there isn’t one.”

Furthermore, many student athletes have expressed their gratitude for the increase in gender diversity and feel that it has benefited the program overall. In the upcoming season, Russell will serve as a co-captain with junior Lucy Grasso, who has been the only girl in the WHS golf program since the 2020 season.

“My freshman year, there was a big sense that the upperclassmen were the ‘alpha males’ of the Golf team, [but] after Lucy joined the team, the team felt a lot more inclusive to underclassmen,” Russell said. “Oftentimes, we have a hard time getting a full squad to show up to tryouts, but we feel that having a female captain can help boost our numbers and make the team.”

In addition to dealing with upholding equality in regards to the composition of sports teams, Title IX laws also protect equity in terms of gear and equipment. This entails that every team, regardless of gender, is entitled to equal funding for equipment. However, teams are allowed to plan fundraisers on their own in order to buy team-specific apparel and gear that will help to benefit their individual program for the upcoming season.

“As the football coach [people say] ‘football gets everything,’ Parseghian said. “It’s not just ‘Hey we want some money,’ it’s you know ‘We’ve got to talk to the manager, when are they in?’ It is a lot of work and I think that’s, for me, what the girls [on the lacrosse team] wanted and trying to make them understand that this is what we want to do to get there.”

In addition to ensuring that physical necessities such as jerseys and other sport-specific gear are equal across the board, many feel passionate about ensuring that female athletes have access to equal training opportunities. At WHS, the fitness room offers a variety of equipment that caters to a variety of athletes. Throughout the years, the Wellness Department has encouraged the use of the fitness room during Wellness classes and has taught all students about exercises and the equipment. Additionally, it is common to see students participating in exercises outside of class non-school hours.

However, often there is a lack of female representation when peering through the fitness room windows.

“For me and for [the] Wellness [Department], our goal is how do we get more females into the fitness room during the day after school,” Parseghian said. “[We are wondering] how can we make it more friendly for the girls teams in the fitness rooms if they want to. Maybe they don’t want to get into the weights and stuff like that, but the couple [girls] that [use the room] I think are benefitting from it.”

As our country has developed more, we have grown to recognize the importance of equity laws, such as Title IX and their impact on society. Even 50 years later, many are still relentlessly fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, as Title IX can only reach so far in terms of ensuring equality. For now, though, the fight for equal recognition and the upholding of the law are prime topics that many feel will continue to be strongly advocated for in the years to come.

“Things might have changed and girls are more accepted in sports, but I do think that there is a stigma with women in sports and girls in sports that’s much different in respect to men and boys in sports,” Lee said. “So, I feel like regarding steps like first making sure that the physical law is being followed, like [in addition to] physically getting equipment and physically making the weight rooms better, also socially viewing women in sports as equals. I think that mentally recognizing that makes people realize the importance of Title IX.”