"Schooled" On The Law IN Public Education

An October 30 report from The Washington Post reported that the Hawaii Department of Education (HDE) and the Oahu Interscholastic Association (OIA) has settled a suit brought under Title IX by Ashley Badis and Tatiana Troup, members of the varsity water polo and swimming teams at James Campbell High School (JCHS). The students’ suit alleged that JCHS’s locker room was reserved exclusively for male athletes, forcing female athletes to change in teachers’ closets, buses and the bathroom of a nearby Burger King, which was closer to the fields than the nearest school restroom.

The suit also claimed the girls’ teams received fewer travel opportunities, worse equipment and inferior practice facilities than boys’ teams. According to the suit, during the 2017-18 school year, JCHS girls’ water polo team was not given a pool to practice in at the start of the season. Instead, they practiced at a nearby beach, buffeted by currents in the ocean.

The students allegied that their experiences reflected a broad pattern of inequity for female athletes in the state’s public schools in violation of Title IX, the long-standing federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education programs.

Last week, the former student-athletes secured a settlement that will ensure girls at the school receive equal athletic benefits as their male peers. The settlement is not monetary but will require the state department of education to hire an independent evaluator to address inequities and evaluate the school’s compliance for the next seven years.

Although the federal district court denied the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in 2019. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Hawaii prevailed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2022. A three-judge panel ruled the girls’ claim for class‐wide retaliation could proceed because of the chilling effect retaliatory actions have throughout the high school. The retaliation claim stemmed from the school’s threat to cancel the girls’ water polo program after girls and parents raised concerns about gender‐based athletic inequities.