A federal appeals court has ruled that a California district violated Title IX because one of its high schools provided unequal athletics-participation opportunities for girls and retaliated against the girls’ softball coach by firing him soon after the sex-discrimination claim was filed.
A three-judge panel upheld a federal district court’s 2012 decision that a group of female softball players at Castle Park High School in the Sweetwater Union High School District received unequal treatment in such areas as facilities, equipment, recruiting, training, scheduling, and fundraising. It also found that the district had violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 when it fired Castle Park’s softball coach in 2006.
