State College Area School District is taking steps to form a second middle school club hockey team after a federal judge found in December that the district violated Title IX by not providing accommodations for girls who wanted to play.
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann on Friday, SCASD attorney Christopher Conrad wrote that the district has worked with the Ice Hockey Club to facilitate formation of the second team that would play in the Laurel Mountain Hockey League and with Pegula Ice Arena to find times for it to practice. Announcements were made at each of the middle schools the week of Jan. 3 for students to express interest and an informational meeting was scheduled for Tuesday.
Seventeen students, including five girls, expressed interest in playing. According to emails accompanying the letter, ice time at Pegula was limited but would be available for practices at 6:20 a.m. on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays.
District representatives met with the parents who filed the lawsuit last year and their attorney last month to outline the steps that were being taken, Conrad wrote.
Brann ordered a preliminary injunction in December requiring that three girls represented in a lawsuit against the district be rostered on an ice hockey club team and that a second team be created if need be. He wrote that the girls “have not been given the opportunity to which they are afforded under Title IX,” the the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools.
The club ice hockey team, which plays in the Laurel Mountain Hockey League, is operated by the Ice Hockey Club, a parent-run booster group, but is chartered and sanctioned by the school district and required to have an academic adviser employed by SCASD. According to the lawsuit, the district has no formal agreement that cedes control of the club team to the booster group, though it told the parents that the team was controlled by a third-party over which it had no authority.
Parents of the three girls filed the lawsuit in August after at least four female students were among the 34 who tried out for the co-ed middle school team in April. They notified the Ice Hockey Club and coach at the time that enough players tried out to form a second middle school team, and also noted that because a private youth hockey team in the area was no longer rostering girls, opportunities for female players would be limited without a second club team.
After the tryouts, 19 boys were chosen for the final roster, but no girls. The parents inquired again about forming a second team, but the president of the club declined, saying the decision was final because there was not sufficient available ice time at Pegula Ice Arena. A Pegula representative told the parents the arena would be happy to work on an accommodation, but that the conversation would have to be initiated by the hockey club.
According to the lawsuit, no girl over the age of 12 was rostered on any hockey team in the State College area, while boys selected for club played on as many as three teams.
The parents say they made several more efforts to with the club and school district officials to form a second team, but they were rebuffed. The club allegedly instead told them if they wanted to compete for a team in the same league as the State College team they would have to travel to Altoona and play for a private Catholic school.
School district administrators made inquiries about a second team but ultimately decided that they had no control over the club. They also said they were not interested in sponsoring a second team independent of the Ice Hockey Club. In July, meanwhile, the district announced the formation of a high school junior varsity team to accommodate boys who did not make the high school varsity team.
Brann disagreed, writing that while schools have flexibility in designing sports programs, there was clearly interest by girls in playing hockey that the district did not meet.
“No facts indicate that the District has made any efforts to meet the female students’ interest in alternative or comparable ways—e.g., by allowing female students to practice with the team to learn skills, inviting the female students to rotate in filling ‘alternate’ spots, holding workshops or coaching sessions at the ice rink where female students can get time on the ice,” he wrote. “Instead, the evidence presented demonstrates that the female students were given no comparable opportunity to play ice hockey at the middle school level, all while the District was aware of the female students’ interest.”
The district argued that it supports creating a second middle school team if feasible, but that the parents’ proposal was not logisitcaly realistic.
Brann, however, wrote that the district did nothing to support a second team and that its argument fails in light of the parents demonstrating they had secured players, coaches and ice time.
In the letter to Brann on Friday, Conrad wrote that the district also is engaging an independent law firm to conduct a Title IX audit of the its club and PIAA programs, and is drafting a club sport policy to be presented to the school board on Jan. 23.
