City schools' elementary hoops policy changed

Does effort create a Catch-22 for boys, girls?

If a young girl wanted to play basketball in the Pittsburgh Public Schools last season, she didn't have many options.

Only two schools had a K-5 girls' team. Other schools invited girls to play on co-ed teams in a male-dominated 16-team league against boys' teams. And at some schools, no girls played basketball.

Now, K-5 boys and girls will be split as the district revamps its program to remedy years of "Title IX equity issues," or unequal opportunities for girls.

But there's a twist.

If a school can't field enough players for both a boys' and a girls' team, neither team will be allowed to compete in the eight-game season that begins in January.

The district says the new rule is intended to force schools to make more vigorous efforts to recruit girls and offer equal opportunities.

One person familiar with Title IX issues says the all-or-nothing approach could potentially limit opportunities and do the opposite of the federal law's intention to provide gender equality.

Peg Pennepacker, the Title IX consultant for the Pennsylvania State Athletic Directors Association Executive Council and an athletic director for the State College Area School District, said by not allowing a team of boys to play basketball because the school's girls' team doesn't have enough players, the district is "hamstringing" the boys' participation.

"I think doing it this way puts a bad spin on the law," said Ms. Pennepacker, who has a Title IX high school consulting business and was hired by the Pittsburgh district in 2008 to conduct a voluntary audit of its high schools. "The law was never put in place to take opportunities away from another group; it was to provide opportunities for another group."

Title IX is 1972 federal law that bans sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funds. When applied to athletics, schools must demonstrate one of three criteria: that the ratio of athletic opportunities for each sex is equal to that of the student population; that the school can show it has been expanding sports opportunities for females; that it fully accommodates the athletic interests and abilities of all students.

The change to the K-5 basketball program, which is offered to fourth- and fifth-graders, is in response to a complaint from a fifth-grader on the girls' basketball team of Pittsburgh Linden K-5 in Point Breeze.