School District to offer flag football for girls to comply with Title IX complaint

Flag football will be a girls varsity sport in public high schools this winter, costing the Clark County School District $225,000 for the first season as it tries to comply with federal requirements.

And flag football may just be the beginning, with girls lacrosse being considered for the 2013-14 school year, said Ray Mathis, the district's executive athletic director. Local high schools added girls freshmen soccer last school year but didn't do the same for boys. And boys won't receive any new sports for a while, he said.

That is because the district is trying to close the gap between the number of its male and female student-athletes, which was pointed out in a civil rights complaint made in 2010.

The district is still trying to satisfy that complaint, said Superintendent Dwight Jones in his Thursday announcement of the first public high school flag football program in Nevada. The expenditure still needs the approval of the Clark County School Board.

The National Women's Law Center in Washington, D.C., filed the complaint against the district, alleging it violated Title IX. The 1972 federal law mandates equal opportunities for men and women in education and athletics.

For schools to comply with Title IX, they must meet one of three criteria. First, the percentage of girls at a school must equal the percentage of its female athletes.

The gap between the number of male and female athletes in the district should be no more than 5 percent, Mathis said. The district has about 10 percent to
12 percent more male athletes, Mathis said. Male athletes outnumber females by about 4,450.

Freshman soccer added about 400 girls, Mathis said.

"That's a start" but not enough, he said.

The district could satisfy Title IX by having a history of expanding opportunities for girls or showing it is effectively meeting female students' interest and abilities to participate in sports.

Why flag football?

Meetings were held with female students in local high schools in 2010 and 2011 to see what sports garnered the most interest, Mathis said. Cheerleading was highest on the list, then flag football and lacrosse. But cheerleading doesn't count.

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that colleges cannot count competitive cheerleading as a sport when trying to comply with Title IX. If the courts won't count college cheerleading as a sport, chances are the ruling would be the same for high schools, Clark County School Board member Carolyn Edwards said.

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@review journal.com or 702-383-0279.