Ed Law Briefly: Federal Court Issues a Preliminary Injunction Allowing Female to Participate on All-Male Wrestling Team

RCEd Commentary

Background: A female student who had been wrestling since third grade wanted to join her middle school team in seventh grade. However, the Line Mountain school district in Pennsylvania only allowed boys and girls to compete together through sixth grade. The wrestling coach told the female student’s parents they would need to petition the School Board to change the policy prohibiting girls from wrestling at that age. 

The School Board's policy "prohibits female participation on male varsity, junior varsity and junior high interscholastic athletics, except when any such team is specifically designated a co-ed team by the administration with the formal approval of the School Board." The girl’s parents challenged the policy in three ways: under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; under a federal law commonly referred to by its United States Code section, 42 U.S.C. Section 1983;  as well under the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) of the Pennsylvania Constitution. This summary will focus exclusively on the Equal Protection Clause argument.

Issue: Did the school district violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause when it failed to allow the female student to wrestle on the all-boys’ team?

Legal Principles: When the Equal Protection Clause is applied to unequal treatment by gender, the school district must demonstrate an exceedingly persuasive justification for the policy. Otherwise, the court will rule in favor of the plaintiff. Neither fear of injury, nor predicting competitive disadvantage, nor concern about sexual harassment are likely not enough for the school system to prevail.

Outcome: The federal district court issued a preliminary injunction allowing A.B., the female student, to participate on the all-male wrestling team. The court found that the school district failed to provide any credible evidence that its policy was substantially related to an important governmental interest of student safety. Also, school officials did not establish that female wrestlers were at a greater risk of sexual contact.

Lessons for Principals and Teachers:

• School officials should be sure to offer equal opportunity access to males and females in athletics.

• In addition to scheduling practices and games, school officials should ensure that locker rooms, training facilities, equipment and supplies, travel, transportation, coaching and other factors related to participation in athletics are equitable.

• Adding to the strength of the Equal Protection Clause is the familiar federal civil rights act, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX’s regulations require that school athletic programs be analyzed as a whole. Specifically, if a district disadvantages one gender in one part of the athletic program, it could be offset or balanced out if the gender has a comparable advantage in another sport. Title IX protects the individual student athlete.

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania:
Beattie v. Line Mountain School District, 992 F. Supp 2d 384 (M.D. Pa. 2014)

_{Note: This information is not intended as legal advice. Federal and other court decisions can differ depending on what region of the country you live in. State laws also weigh in on certain issues. All cases are for educational purposes only, and meant to demonstrate how courts or administrative agencies have acted in specific instances as well as to provide information that can bolster the overall legal literacy of teachers and administrators. Local school attorneys can provide more detail about local law.}