CullmanTimes.com, Cullman, Alabama

Local News

March 14, 2007

Title IX lawsuit settled

By Nancy Glasscock

A lawsuit filed against the Cullman County Commission on Education regarding Title IX violations at Good Hope High School was settled out of court, Superintendent Hank Allen said Wednesday.

The school board met in an executive session Tuesday to discuss the litigation. According to the Title IX federal law, no United States resident in any education program receiving federal assistance can lawfully be discriminated against based on gender.

Allen said no specific construction or renovation plans are under way, but school officials will assess needs of girls’ sports at Good Hope, and determine what will be done to make practice and competition facilities equal. Those changes could be complete some time next year, he said.

“We are going to make sure the girls’ facilities are comparable to our boys’ facilities there,” Allen said.

Parents of Good Hope students filed the suit last year, alleging violations of Title IX, including a requirement for the school’s softball team to raise money for supplies and a lack of practice and competition facilities on campus. The lawsuit alleged boys’ sports teams practice on campus, while the Raiders’ softball team traveled about five miles to Heritage Park to practice and play games.

In addition, boys locker rooms are in better condition than girls’ lockerrooms, and the girls’ basketball team’s practice is scheduled around that of the boys’ team, according to the allegations in the suit. The suit also states the girls’ team usually practices in the school’s old gym, while the boys practice in the new gym.

Nancy Horton, who was superintendent at the time the lawsuit was filed, said in July allegations about the softball field at Good Hope were made after work on a new field had already begun. In 2005, the school system bought 18 acres of land adjacent to the school’s property for the purpose of constructing new softball and baseball fields, she said.

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