In the first part of 2009, Diane Madsen and I met with representatives of the O-K (athletic) Conference, that was considering going to a plan to host high school basketball double headers with their boy and girl's varsity teams, always having the girl's play the first or warm-up game. We suggested that they not do this. They said that the GLIAC (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) did and so it must be OK.Diane Madsen has agreed to connect herself to M GET (Michigan Gender Equity Team) as Vice President. In June 2009, the Michigan Women's Commission (MWC) filed a formal Michigan Department of Civil Rights complaint against the Capital Area Activities Conference (CAAC). The MWC complained that when the CAAC league hosts basketball double headers with their boy and girl's varsity teams, because they always have the girl's play the first or warm-up game. Around this time, we also learned that the OK (athletic) Conference decided to NOT go to the idea of having the girls always play the first game in varsity/ basketball boy/ girl double headers.
In February 2010, Diane and I submitted a Title IX complaint against the Great Lakes Interscholastic Athletic (college) Conference (GLIAC), that includes schools like Wayne State and Grand Valley, with the Cleveland Department Of Education (DOE) Office of Civil Rights (OCR). We complained that when the league hosts basketball double headers with their men and women's teams, they always have the women play the first or warm-up game. This week we learned that our complaint was settled and the league agreed to rotate who plays the late prime-time game between men and women, each year.
In March 2010, Michigan AAUW, Michigan NOW and M GET collaborated to send a letter to State Superintendent Michael Flanagan and the State Board of Education, complaining about Michigan athletic equity issues. We discussed how Michigan athletic leagues, lead by Michigan public school administrators, have mistakenly put girls as warm-up games in varsity boy/girl basketball double headers and decided to continue playing middle school girl sports out-of-season. How our schools still don't make it easy to know who their Title IX Coordinator is, still are not training them and still have not made sure that the athletic leadership and officiating reflects a gender balance.
At this same time, Diane and I on behalf of M GET contacted CAAC high school officials threatening a second MWC Michigan Department of Civil Rights complaint against the CAAC, related to their decision to continue having their local districts schedule middle school girls sports out-of-season. They also agreed to change their middle school sports scheduling, so that it too matches the current high school pattern, early in the complaint process.
At the March 2010 meeting of the Michigan Women's Commission (MWC), the Commission agreed to file (other) complaints as needed on Title IX issues at the state and federal level.
In May/June 2010, the Michigan Women's Commission has become even more supportive of our Michigan athletic equity work by recently working with the Michigan DOE to create a couple new Title IX information pieces. We found out that the Michigan DOE has now made it a priority to record the name of the Title IX Coordinator for all Michigan School Districts and to distribute the new MWC Title IX info pieces to the local Districts.
In June/July 2010 our Michigan AAUW, NOW, M GET coalition drafted and submitted an article to be run in the newsletter for the Michigan Association of School Administrators, on our Title IX issues. Additionally, AAUW, NOW and M GET agreed to have our organization names used on a letter supporting the passage of the National Women's Law Center proposed federal sports data legislation (High School Athletics Accountability Act of 2009, HR 2882). As a result of the above Cleveland DOE, OCR complaint, we now have an opportunity to submit Michigan athletic equity issues to the Cleveland Office, for consideration to be used as examples of issues to be included in national OCR training presentations.
Friends, we need your help to tell us if you see any of these or other practices discriminatory against girls, occurring at school districts in your area, or in the area’s where members of your organization live in Michigan. We are willing and more than able to take steps to correct these things, but we need your help to find out about where they are taking place. Thank you so much for all you do to assist girls and women!
Tom Wilson, President
Michigan Gender Equity Team (M GET)
Phillip A. Hart Award Recipient
4045-23rd Street
Wyandotte, MI 48192-6902
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