EDITORIAL - The Title IX attorneys are coming, but the Madera Unified School District is dragging their feet with little concern for creating equity for the female athletes at Madera High School. In July of this year, BVN published a story about the disparity between the MHS varsity baseball team and the MHS varsity softball team. That story has attracted the attention of the a California based Title IX law firm.

In April of 2016, a storm hit Madera with winds topping 37 miles per hour. Trees around Madera were toppled, a historic 58-year-old fresco of the father of the Virgin Mary over the front entrance of Saint Joachim's Catholic Church blew off the wall into the street below, and the backstop at the Madera High Varsity Baseball Field crashed down the old steel pipe and wood bleachers. The damage to the bleachers gave the school district $2 million in insurance payouts to rebuild.

Despite warnings of violating Title IX, the District put all of that money into what some have called a monument to high school baseball. The new $2 million project included a snack bar, accessible restrooms, air-conditioned press box, granite walls with the listing of past winning teams and a multi-level stadium. However, the girl’s varsity softball team, who has moved from substandard field to substandard fields in the forty-year history of the program, was left without again.

Since our July 2019 story, the school district has talked of building a new varsity softball field behind Memorial Stadium. Madera Unified’s Deputy Superintendent Sandon Schwartz said the girl’s facility would share a snack bar and restrooms with the football field. The boys don’t share facilities with other sports, so how is this equal? The other issue is with the lack of adequate softball locker rooms, the boys have the Coyote Field House with lockers, showers and a trainers room, while the girls have an old Ag classroom with a chalkboard. How is this equal?

There is more to Title IX than just facilities. The boys have their “Monument to High School Baseball” on one of Madera’s main thoroughfares, Olive Avenue; shouldn’t the girl’s “Monument to High School Softball” also be proudly located on Olive Avenue so the public can see it every day like the boy’s stadium? Wouldn’t that be equal?

The recreational area built on the site of the old Ag Farm is a great location for the junior varsity and freshman teams of both the baseball and softball programs. Meanwhile, there is a perfect location for the girl’s varsity field that has access to more than adequate locker rooms, restrooms, parking and land for batting cages and bullpens right on the main campus of the high school - the Junior Varsity Baseball Field. How is Title IX being adhered to if even the school’s junior varsity baseball team has a far better facility that the girl’s varsity softball team?

Parking? Yes parking. Once the varsity softball field is built and the outfield netting put in place, the remaining grass area around the stadium and portables could be paved and finished as the school’s first real parking lot, solving the lack of parking issue that has plagued Madera High for nearly a hundred years. Admittedly there would not be enough parking for students and faculty; there would be enough room for a staff parking lot. The boys have a parking lot and I don’t think the district’s last-minute plan of a varsity softball complex tucked away and hidden behind the football stadium includes parking?

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.

Title IX is just thirty-seven simple words made into law in 1972. Though even after forty-seven years, Madera High School has yet to be brought into compliance with the Federal Law. Thousands of girls who have passed through Madera High School have been denied the benefits of equal facilities and opportunities in sports because there has not been anyone to stand up for their rights. “We Believe” that forty-seven years is long enough for Madera Unified to have corrected this problem. With all the bonds the district has talked voters into supporting and with over $30 million in the district's reserves, there has been more than enough time and funds to have dealt with the Title IX violations which still exist in this school district. If you agree that there are still violations in place, you might also agree that the only reason is that for forty-seven years girl’s sports have not been seen as a “real” concern for any of the current or previous administrators or boards of trustees. The time for lip service is over. Now is the time for action.

The attorneys are coming and Madera Unified is going to have to fix over forty years of disparity. Title IX attorneys have the resources to make the boy's varsity baseball field disappear. It has happened in other school districts in this state, it can happen here. Time is running out Mr. Schwartz. Please don’t disregard Title IX or try to solve the problem with a Band-Aid. The law is not on your side with this one and the District will lose.

Equal access means equal opportunity.

BTW… Have you played for Madera High School Varsity Softball in the last ten years? Are you are parent or guardian of an active or former Madera High School Varsity Softball player? Are you a coach or former coach for the Madera High School Varsity Softball team? The attorneys at a Los Angles based law firm would like to hear your stories. Please mail your stories to us at the following address and we will forward you unopened envelope to the attorney's.

BVN - MUSD TITLE IX STORY
1625 Howard Road #133
Madera, CA 93637

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