If high schools fund a boys’ football team, they should fund a girls’ football team, claims a Title IX lawsuit by parents of six Utah girls, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. The Jordan, Canyons and Granite school districts discriminated against female students by not providing a tackle football team, the lawsuit alleges.
Sam Gordon, who was a star player on a boys’ recreational football team when she was nine, is starting high school, according to Bleacher Report. Her father is a lawyer.
“Girls can do anything the boys can do,” Sam says. “We can hit just as hard, we can run just as fast, we can throw just as far. Having a girls’ tackle football team would be an amazing addition to high school sports.”
The Gordons helped form the Utah Girls Tackle Football League for middle schoolers in 2015, the suit states. It’s grown from 50 girls to 200. About 100 girls who played in the league are entering high school.
Herriman High School — in the Jordan School District — approved a girls’ football club earlier this year, and 50 girls who attended the high school’s sophomore orientation signed a form stating they’d like to learn more about girls’ football, the suit says, adding that the other schools would see similar interest.
Girls want to play on teams that are supported by cheerleaders and a band, parents said. The suit also mentions the chance to earn honors they can put on college applications, “compete for regional and state championships, earn school credit for physical education classes, and have their accomplishments documented by school and local newspapers,” reports the Salt LakeTribune.
High school football is dangerous enough for boys. Are there really that many girls who want to play?
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