ACLU files lawsuit against Ind. school

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a federal lawsuit Aug. 28 against the Eastern Pulaski Community School Corporation in support of a student from Winamac, Ind.

According to a press release, the 12-year-old female plaintiff, a seventh grader at Winamac Community Middle School, along with her father Joseph Button, asked the principal and athletic director if she could try out for the school’s seventh grade football team.

The student and father were told that girls were not allowed to join and that she should participate in volleyball or cross country, according to the release.

The school’s decision not to allow her to try out for the football team violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, according to the release.

ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk said in the release, numerous courts have recognized that gender is not a valid excuse for keeping young women out of
previously all-male sports.

“The ACLU of Indiana works to secure gender equality and ensure that all women and girls are able to lead lives of dignity, free from discrimination based on gender,” Jane Henegar, ACLU of Indiana executive director, said in the release. “We should maintain the momentum, built over the last 40 years, in which we have seen the benefit young women receive from active and full involvement in school athletics.”

— Matt Stefanski