Documents

Well….I’ve been waiting for the bylaws that say in black and white that girls can’t play baseball, but after repeated requests, and still nothing, I’m starting to think they don’t exist.  I’ve also asked for minutes and notes from the League meeting repeatedly, with no results.  So instead, I’ve put in a timeline of events with some supporting documents from my end.  One of the documents is a transcription of a voicemail left on my phone by the principal.  The only thing edited from that was a phone number that I’m sure shouldn’t be shared.

UPDATE!!!  Today (March 17th, 2009) I finally received the bylaws.  Maybe I’m reading them wrong, but I can’t find any place that says girls CAN’T play baseball.

 

To open the documents, you must have a pdf reader.

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 - Rachel goes to baseball try-outs after school.  I went with her and stayed for a little over 40 minutes.  Rachel is also told that day that she may not be allowed to join the team because she is a girl.

 

Thursday, February 19th, 2009 - I called the principal of the school and left a voicemail letting her know that I had heard that Rachel may not be allowed to join the team because she’s a girl and I wanted confirmation from her regarding that.  Later that afternoon, Rachel goes to baseball try-outs again and I went with her and video taped nearly the entire try-out.  During that time, the principal called my cell phone and left me a message stating that she was under the impression that there would be no issue having a girl on a boy’s team and that the only time it was an issue was when it was a boy trying out for a girl’s team.  She also said she would get me a copy of the rules (which I have asked for multiple times and still not gotten) and she would have someone get in touch with me sooner rather than later with more answers and/or rules.

 

Friday, February 20th, 2009 - The baseball coach called me and left a message stating that he wanted to speak to me.  I called him back right away, but he was not in his classroom.  He called me back a few minutes later and he informed me that Rachel had made the team, but he wanted to discuss a few things with me.  We discussed the possible risk of Rachel getting hurt, which I assured him Rachel and I were both aware of and we talked about possible comments that could be made by other players, parents, etc.  Since she’s played baseball for a number of years now and has been the only girl a few times, I told him that Rachel had already been through the comments and she still wanted to play. 

Later that day, Rachel called me at work - VERY excited - to let me know she made the team.

 

Monday, February 23rd, 2009 - Rachel went to her first practice with the school team. 

 

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 - Rachel went to baseball practice and I believe it was on one of these 2 days that she got her team hat and practice jersey.

 

Wednesday and Thursday, February 25th and 26th, 2009 - Rachel goes to 2 more days of practice with the team. (Practices are Monday through Thursday after school until 4:30pm.)

 

Monday, March 2nd, 2009 - Rachel goes to her 5th practice after school.

 

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 - Around lunch time, the baseball calls our home and speaks to Joe (Rachel’s dad), and tells him that the Athletic Director’s in the Shasta Valley League voted Rachel off the team.  The coach did say that Rachel could continue to practice with the team.

Joe called me at work and told me what happened.  By 1pm, I was at the school to speak to the principal.  She gave me a copy of a letter that the school’s Athletic Director had sent to the other league members (dated 2-20-09) asking them to allow a young lady to be a part of their team.  She then read me some notes from the meeting. (A meeting that I had no idea was taking place.)  It stated that the other 4 Athletic Director’s voted 4-0 that Rachel not be allowed to participate on the “BOY’S” team.  It said that they were within their legal rights to oppose this because of the by-laws that have been reviewed by an attorney.  They were also afraid that the boys would not play to their potential because they’d be playing against a girl.  They said that Rachel could try out for the comparable team that the school offered for girl’s which is Softball.  And the principal told me that because it’s fast pitch softball, it s considered a comparable sport.  She told me she would get me a copy of the by-laws and the minutes from the meeting as soon as she had them.  I also asked for contacts for the Shasta Valley League - either the Athletic Director’s or whoever was the head of this group, which she said she would get for me.  I told her I was going to fight this.

After I left the school, I called the Athletic Director of our school and left a message for him to get back to me as soon as possible.

Rachel went to practice after school.

 

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 - I emailed the principal and asked her if she had gotten the by-laws or the notes from the meeting yet.  I also asked if she knew of an appeal process I could go through.

I then emailed the Athletic Director, asking him about a special meeting of the League so I could appeal their decision and have the right to speak on behalf of my daughter.

I got an email back from the Athletic Director that said he would look into a special meeting, but that their next scheduled meeting was April 7th, 2009.

Rachel went to practice after school and came home with her team uniform.

I got an email from the principal saying that she had requested a copy of the by-laws from the Athletic Director and would get them to me, and that the minutes from the League meeting had not been typed yet and once they were she would get me a copy.  She also said that she had met with the superintendent (another meeting that I was not made aware of) and that they were going to go with the decision of the League.

 

Thursday, March 5th, 2009 - Rachel went to practice after school and when she came home, she told me that the team had a practice game on Saturday, March 7th.  She told me that the coach said she could play in the practice game.  This same day, I emailed our Athletic Director asking (AGAIN) for the names of the other Athletic Directors or at least the names of the schools that they belonged to.

 

Friday, March 6th, 2009 - I drafted a letter to all of the involved Athletic Director’s (whose names and school affiliation I had to dig up on my own), the principal of our school and the superintendent of our school district and hand delivered them to all schools involved.  The letter was a firm request of a reversal of their decision stating a number of reasons why they should.  In the letter, I gave them a week to reverse their decision and if they did not, I said I would seek legal counsel and proceed with a law suit.

At about 4:30 that afternoon, I received and email and a phone call from the principal.  She had called to confirm that I received her email.  The letter attached to email basically said that, effective immediately, Rachel would no longer be able to participate in any capacity on the baseball team.  That included practices.

 

Friday, March 13th, 2009 - Rachel spoke with a sports editor for one of our local newspapers.  By 5pm I had received no word from anyone on a reversal of the league’s decision.

 

Saturday, March 14th, 2009 - I spoke with a talk radio host that was interested in interviewing Rachel on the air.  We have a tentative time and day set.

 

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 - I got the bylaws from Ms. Tucker.

In reading the bylaws, I did find where it says on page 2, Article VI B General, #5:

“All schools shall follow governing of CIF rulebooks and League Bylaws for specific sport. (See Appendix C-G).” 

It just so happens that I have 300 Series - School Regulations (You can also find this at http://cifstate.org/governance/constitution_bylaws/index.html) page of the CIF Bylaws and it states:

“Student Team: Whenever a school provides only a team or teams for boys in a particular sport, girls are permitted to qualify for the Student Teams.

Boys’ Team: Whenever a school provides a team or teams for boys and a team or teams for girls in the SAME sport, girls shall not be permitted to qualify for the boys’ team(s) in that sport, nor shall boys be permitted to qualify for the girls’ team(s) in that sport.”

 

BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL ARE NOT THE SAME SPORT!!!