Title IX Litigation at Kettle Moraine, Oconomowoc, Mukwonagao, Waukesha Districts

According to a federal complaint quoted in the Living Lake Country Reporter on March 5, 2012, "five area school districts facing Title IX complaints fail to 'provide opportunities for girls to play sports in numbers substantially proportionate to their enrollment"  (Trovato).  The school districts facing Title IX complaints are Kettle Moraine, Oconomowoc, Mukwonago, Waukesha, and Elmbrook.

The article refers to letters from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to area school superintendants and states directly that "the complainant alleges that the disctrict discriminates against female student athletes at the high school by denying them an equal opportuntiy to participate in interscholastic athletics." 

First of all, it's interesting to note that Kettle Moraine offers 12 WIAA boys sports and 11 girl sports.  Certainly that's a lot of sports offerings, although at a school of around 1450 students, that sounds fairly typical.  The article goes on to note that the Kettle Moraine school district offers "girls lacrosse, alpine ski racing, rugby, and field hockey as club sports, which are not tax-payer funded."

This caught our attention, because to our knowledge it did not appear that the Kettle Moraine Knightmares Girls Rugby team was a school district sport. (While rugby is not currently a WIAA sport, it is offered as a school sport, even a varsity sport at some of the high schools in the area.  Lacrosse is in a similar position at some schools). 

Some interesting statistics appeared in the complaint, specifically stating that in 2006, 750 or 51 percent of the student body were males, and 725 or 49% were female.  The essence of the complaint seems to focus on a disparity in opportunities for enrolled girls to play sports in numbers substantially poroportionate to their enrollment.  775 of the students in 2006 were student-athletes and 63% of these athletes were male, while 37% of student athletes were female.  It's also noted that Kettle Moraine added one girls sport to its budget in the last 26 years (girls hockey).  Data from 2008 "show a similar situation, though the participation gap had closed slighty"

The article goes on to note that the "complaint chides the district for not offering any kind of program for girls rugby or field hockey."   Without getting into the politics surrounding school districts and Title IX, we at the WGR offices found it moving to see an official document enouraging the acceptance of rugby, especially for student athletes and their families, not to mention the hundreds of alumni famlies, who have already accepted rugby at places like Kettle Moraine, Brookfield, and Vernon (Mukwonago).