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Text Box: Legal Advocacy Fund

By LAF Liaison

Marilyn Roland

rolandm2@comcast.net

Text Box: LAF is actively reviewing new case support applications. If you would like to make a case recommendation, please contact laf@aauw.org. Title IX in High School Athletics Project Update In collaboration with the Legal Aid Society (LAS) of San Francisco, AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund released a new Program in a Box in late September on Title IX enforcement in high school athletics. The Women's Sports Foundation is co-branding some of their relevant materials on this topic for AAUW member use and working with AAUW and LAS to develop a webinar for interested members held in late October. Case Updates 1) Feather River Community College In the spring of 2008, the lawyers for the three Legal Advocacy Fund-supported Feather River Community College cases submitted closing and reply briefs from their November 2007 trial to the California State Personnel Board. The key issue in all three cases is

Text Box: retaliation for complaints of sex discrimination in violation of Title IX. After more than a year, the judge in the state board hearings submitted in July 2009 a decision in favor of all three plaintiffs. The California State Personnel Board rejected the ruling, however, and said it will decide the case itself after further written or oral arguments. 2) Board of Education in Birmingham, Alabama Four years ago, AAUW supported teacher and coach Roderick Jackson when his retaliation case went before the U.S. Supreme Court. Now his case is finally officially over. Jackson sued his employer, the Board of Education in Birmingham, Alabama, after he was fired for complaining about the unequal funding, facilities, and equipment of his girls' basketball team compared to the boys' basketball team. In 2005, the Supreme Court in a precedent-setting ruling, said that Title IX protects teachers that are retaliated against for challenging sex discrimination against students. Jackson therefore had the right to sue under Title IX for the retaliation he experienced. After the

Text Box: ruling, Jackson's case returned to district court, where he would have had to prove that the retaliation discrimination did occur, but the parties opted to settle instead. Part of the terms of the agreement required the Board of Education to take necessary steps to provide female athletes with facilities comparable to those used by male athletes, to appoint a Title IX coordinator at the school, and to adopt a Title IX compliance policy and grievance procedure. In 2008, Jackson filed court papers alleging that he was still being retaliatied against and that the school was not adequately fulfilling the settlement agreement. On September 3, 2009, the U.S. District Court ruled that the Birmingham Board of Education complied with the original settlement agreement, formally ending the eight-year-old case. Jackson has spoken on numerous occasions at AAUW meetings where members have appreciated firsthand his heroism and dedication to equity.