Schools Right to Allow Girls on Boys’ Teams

Trustees of the San Diego Unified School District made the reasonable choice last week when they endorsed Supt. Thomas W. Payzant’s proposal to allow girls to compete against boys in football and wrestling. Ethically it was the right choice; legally it may have been the only one.

The change in policy was initiated by the desire of Mira Mesa High School sophomore Kerry Hanley to try out for the wrestling team. It is not a decision that will affect large numbers of people in the immediate future. But, for those girls who feel they have the physical attributes and the motivation to play contact sports against boys, it opens up the opportunity to test themselves and accomplish all that they are capable of accomplishing.

Federal courts, citing the equal protection guarantees of the 14th Amendment, have held that girls should not be prohibited from playing on a boys’ sports team if there is no girls’ team in that sport. School board member Larry Lester, who abstained from the vote, raised an interesting point that boys are not allowed to play on sports teams reserved for girls, such as field hockey or volleyball. But the courts have held that all-girl teams are allowable because to open every sport to boys would, in effect, deny girls equal participation in athletics.

School officials are not expecting an onslaught of girls wanting to wrestle or play football. But to the extent that girls do want to participate, some questions should be dealt with concerning how they are assimilated into the teams.

Any student who plays a contact sport is assuming a certain risk of injury. But coaches need to research whether different kinds of protective gear should be purchased or developed for female athletes. Coaches also are going to be under pressure to shape the attitudes of their male players in positive ways. That process begins with the coach demonstrating a non-sexist attitude that says a female tryout will have an equal shot at making the team, no more, no less.

No matter how much concern is shown by school officials, some emotional trauma would seem inevitable as girls try to enter an arena previously exclusive to boys.

Those who do will follow the footsteps of others who have paid the price of daring to be first.

And, as with all equal rights issues, everyone who becomes part of this experience will have to confront his or her own attitudes about equality. Ultimately, that may be the most important ramification of the decision.