The Louisville Courier-Journal has an AP story today reporting "School bars girl managers on boys' team." Some quotes:
SEYMOUR, Ind. — Two girls have been barred from managing a middle school boys' football team because officials worry about both sexes mingling on the team bus. The girls say they might ask the state Board of Education to reinstate them.Certainly looks like a step backward! Posted by Marcia Oddi at August 27, 2004 11:09 AMEighth-graders Tori Meneely and Kimberly Lara managed the Seymour Middle School football and basketball teams last season. But this year school officials refused to allow them to help with the football team.
The girls and Tori's mother, Tereca Schryer, a former Seymour High School football team manager, appealed for reinstatement to the Seymour School Board Tuesday. [my emphasis] * * *
"With incidents that happen between students at other schools, I feel like it's a proactive decision," [middle school principal Barbara Bergdoll] said. "From now on, we will have girl managers for girls' sports and boy managers for boy sports."
The girls argued that the ban was a violation of Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in schools.
The girls were not physically participating on the football field, said Seymour Schools Superintendent Robert Schmeilau, so sports managers do not have the same rights as players.