Former Wa
yland Board of Education member Shelly Salisbury Whitley has filed a Title IX civil rights complaint against the Wayland School District.
She and her husband, Aaron, both Wayland High School graduates, filed their discrimination complaints Tuesday with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and with federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Cleveland Office.
Mrs. Whitley said, “The issue at hand is that our softball program has five fields to use for practice and games for grades 7-12 on our Middle/High School campus and our baseball program has one field to use for practice and games for grades 7-12 on the Middle/High School campus. This situation seems not to be equitable for the baseball program or the male athletes at our school district.
“The district is aware of the situation and has talked and planned for years to address the situation with renovating and existing softball field into a baseball field. However, the school board does not have a majority to allocate funds and resources to the project. The district has the funds and also has alternative funding from a local casino and could use those monies to not affect their general fund.”
Mrs. Whitley officially stated in her complaint: “I was on the Wayland School Board for four years and we were working toward correcting the situation/lack of baseball fields and making a second baseball field available for our baseball program this summer. The district knows that they are in violations of Title IX, as they provide more fields for the softball program on school property that they provide for the baseball program. The district continues to avoid taking responsibility for this problem and refuses to commit the time and resources to the project. The district continues to spend resources in other areas rather than make choices which would allow them the ability to correct this situation and make even or fair situation’s for the baseball program.”
The Whitleys, who have a son who plays baseball, have said while the softball program enjoys use of varsity and practice fields on the high school campus, the baseball program does not. There is a jayvee baseball diamond, but it is in a different location, across the street from Baker Elementary School.
“It is true I have a son who is on the JV baseball team, but if the school responds to renovating the Middle School baseball fields, as has been the plan for a few years now… my son will not benefit by the time he graduates.
“I was chair of Athletic Committee on the School board for four years. We had this as a goal project for all the time I served. We knew this was a problem and people could view the lack of baseball fields compared to softball fields a violation of Title IX.”
She also noted she has a daughter who very likely a year from now will be preparing to play softball as a freshman.
Mrs. Whitley continued, in her complaint, “The district refuses to provide the same number of fields for our baseball program as they do the softball program. That continues to put the baseball program at a disadvantage… and they do not have the same opportunities offered (to the girls) by the district…”
Wayland’s softball program, under the guidance of coach Cheri Ritz, is regarded as one of the strongest in Michigan. The baseball program last year won a district championship under new coach Mike Doupe, but it has struggled otherwise for almost a decade.
Mrs. Whitley said a remedy for the situation has been offered, but rejected.
“We have fields at our Middle School, which is on the same campus, that can be renovated and get them ready for baseball competition,” she wrote. “It would cost around $200,000, the last bid I recall, to irrigate and correct the size of the field to accommodate high school baseball. The school board has all the information they need to act and planned on doing so until a March 2015 meeting where they voted to not proceed with the project of providing an additional baseball field to match the same number of fields available to our softball program.”
Essentially, the reason for the complaint, Mrs. Whitley has indicated, is the stubborn refusal by the school board and administrators to solve the problem of athletic discrimination.
“In the spring, freshman, JV and varsity try to share time with one baseball field that is regulation size and meets safety requirements. The freshmen get pushed to the field across from Baker as well as middle school teams… but that field is not safe for many reasons.
“So this is about equitable options for softball and baseball athletes at Wayland Union Schools. It is about WUS actually having funds to allocate to this project, but they choose not to, knowing there is an issue that may be deemed a violation of Title IX.
“My hope is that this brings no work or stress to the district…the easy and right thing to do is stick to the plan and renovate the Middle School baseball field that is currently unplayable for baseball. The girls have two fields at high school and three at Middle School. The boys have one field at the high school and zero at the Middle School that is equipped for baseball.”
Wayland school officials are in receipt of a copy of the complaint.
