Double Standards

Title Nine
      

Warning: This blog post is based solely on opinion and experience with little scope to the rest of the country, if you are offended please please accept this apology in advance.

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance...

—United States Code Section 20

This rule or law is amazing in principle, however I truly believe it is completely lost in translation towards the application end of it. As a student at a high school (and middle school) where i saw this rule implemented on more than one occasion it was always in the form of letting a girl play football or letting a girl wrestle and I'm all for that. But the lost in translation part for me was the fact that as a boy we weren't allowed to play volleyball (something i would have potentially been interested in) and we weren't allowed to do cheer leading (something i had zero interest in lol).

Please correct me if I'm wrong but i feel this is a complete and total violation of this rule, unless of course these sports team didn't receive financial assistance (which they did... i believe).

Gym Time In Ferndale

As most of you who read my blog know, I coach a competitive youth basketball team and have for three years. The most frustrating thing about coaching a sport such as basketball in the town of Ferndale is the fact that their is next to zero allowance of gym time given to kids who make a competitive team. For developing the youth athlete's who will more than likely be the athlete's playing varsity sports (and in turn raise money for the school through ticket sales... etc.) we sure devote little time to them as a community.

For example (hang with me we're going to do some Math): Ferndale school district has 7 elementary schools, 2 middle schools (each with two gyms) and 1 high school (with two gyms) that makes for 13 gyms (7es + 4ms + 2hs = 13) available every single night in the town of Ferndale (not counting the boys and girls club and the YMCA because our taxes don't pay for those places... for the most part). That is 130 practice slots available per week in the town of Ferndale (13gyms x 5days x 2practice slots per night)... so how is it that the AAU program (bias towards my team) is not able to get a full gym for 2 hours per night for only 2 nights a week?

The way it used to be (way back when I played), in 5th grade you got the last pick of gym times and as you got older your team got a higher and higher pick alternating every year with boys and girls. we had two weekends of league every year where we got to play at "home" which believe it or not to a 5th-8th grade kid is rather cool, during times when school was closed due to a holiday, gym time was accessible for free, the Dylan Crayton Tournament (a tournament put on by the Ferndale Boys AAU Program every year) gym time was either donated or extremely cheap... The way it works now, girls pick first (5th through 8th) then boys pick (not ranked by age, more ranked by who got their request in first). We play zero home league games, gym times during holidays have to be purchased from the YMCA or another third party and the Dylan Crayton Tournament gym time is astronomically priced by our lovely athletic director at the local high school (which is kind of ironic because everyone who plays for the AAU program lives in Ferndale and pays taxes for their kid to attend the school district... food for thought).

The only thing I'm saying here is that the school district is providing less and less outlets for kids to do something the excel at (and enjoy) causing their to be ahigher price for the outlets that are available. Yet they stand around wondering why the drug problem in the town is sky rocketing.

As a taxpayer in the town of Ferndale you should be outraged by the very little amount of support a kid who is pretty darn good at a sport receives, yet their are activities and gym times for days for the kids who just play for fun.

Moral of the story:

“They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself” - Andy Warhol