Barred From Pageant, Mother Claims Bias

If Jamie Schaible had decided to have an abortion instead of her baby, she might be the reigning Miss San Marcos today and perhaps ascended to Fairest of the Fair, ruling over the Del Mar Fair in June.

The willowy 17-year-old San Marcos beauty has all the right statistics: tall (5-foot-9), red hair, hazel eyes and the proper measurements.

But Miss San Marcos contest director Charlotte Presley denied Schaible’s entry into the pageant, which was decided last Sunday, saying that contest rules disqualified her. The rules state that contestants must never have been married, not have children and be of good moral character.

Schaible has a 3-month-old son, Anthony James, and she does not think she should have had to make a choice.

“If I had had an abortion, I would have been eligible,” she said. “If I can’t be a contestant because I have a baby, then they are condoning abortion.”

After her rejection, Schaible wrote a letter to pageant officials and local newspapers.

“If I am not allowed to compete next year, I plan to sue them,” the high school senior said, although she is not sure whom she would sue.

Fairest of the Fair pageant director Fran Scarborough said such a case has never come up in her 13 years at the pageant and the restriction against single mothers “has never been questioned.”

“Every pageant system goes by substantially the same rules,” she said. “We use the same rules so that our girls will qualify for the Miss California USA competition.”

Miss California USA director Carolee Munger confirmed that the statewide pageant rules also would disqualify Schaible. Munger said the issue has not come up “in all of my 27 years in the business. Of course, there could have been girls who got pregnant and dropped out without giving it as the reason.”

Miss California USA uses the same eligibility rules as Miss Universe contests, Munger said, including the ban against single mothers.

“It’s real tough for a young teen-ager to keep up with her schoolwork, her job and still be a good mother,” Munger said. “She would never be able to fulfill her duties if she won.”

“This is a job, a very strenuous job,” said Sara Meza, director of Miss USA Inc. “Our rules are very simple and are designed to protect the contestants and the pageant. There is no intention to be pro-life or pro-choice. There’s no place here for that kind of controversy.”

Schaible said she does not like “everyone trying to make up my mind for me.”

“I want the right to decide whether I can do both. A lot of women manage a job and a family and do all right. I don’t think that the pageant officials have the right to say I can’t run my own life.”

In her letter, which was sent to San Marcos and Del Mar Fair officials, she demanded that the rules be changed so that she can enter the Miss San Marcos contest next year.

“If I had chosen to abort my child, I would still be eligible for the pageant,” Schaible wrote. “If this stipulation is intended to automatically disqualify those whom some people believe to have poor moral character, then I suggest each candidate be tested for virginity.”

“My parents are behind me 100% and my boyfriend’s family is helping out,” she said Thursday. “I don’t believe that having a baby is a good reason to get married. I have taken modeling classes and I want to show people--my friends, my family, myself--that I can do this. I want the chance to show that single parents are able to do lots of things.”