PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A family in the Phoenixville Area School District has filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights, claiming the school is violating Title IX by not properly funding or supporting girls’ sports.
Mike Padilla says the goal is equality.
“This is not about taking away from the boys. Right? This is about raising the ships for the girls,” he said. “The future state that we want to get to is raising the girls up to the boys, and maybe raising both of them even higher.”
Padilla and his daughter Kenzie, a senior at a cyber charter, who, as a resident of the district, participates in athletics with the team, have spent more than a year compiling data they say shows the discrepancies between boys and girls sports.
Padilla points to coaches’ salaries, recognition, and facilities — for example, the baseball fields compared to the softball field: “They are these mud-ridden dugouts. There's no protective fence for the dugout, you've got mud everywhere. There's no home run fence anywhere.”
The Padillas’ website, Title IX Phoenixville, lists differences in spending and participation. He also notes the banners and plaques honoring former athletes at Phoenixville are all boys.
“There's no shortage of women who can be recognized based on their accomplishments,” said the father.
Padilla says he and his daughter started with a goal to partner with the district. But he filed the complaint with the Office of Civil Rights after a meeting with school administrators led him to believe they were stonewalling them, including posting data — required by law to be public — that clearly was wrong.
“For the facilities column across all sports, it was listed at zero. And this was for the year in which Phoenixville installed a full new-turf field for the football team and a full, new track,” Padilla said.
He says athletes, coaches and parents do a great job with what they have.
“It's just that layer of orchestration and coordination of the administration has to ensure that there's equal opportunities and equal recognition,” he said. “That layer is, for the most part, missing.”
A spokeswoman says the district is “fully committed to compliance with Title IX,” adding they take the allegations seriously and are conducting a full internal audit to demonstrate full compliance while also addressing any disparities they find.
A spokeswoman for Phoenixville Area School District says they’re fully committed to Title IX compliance and are conducting a full internal audit.
Kenzie Padilla will go to Harvard in the fall.