Lawsuit Over Girls Softball Fields Still Not Resolved

The city’s determined push to level the playing field may have spurred hundreds of girls citywide to slip on a softball mitt, but it hasn’t done much for the ones who got the ball rolling with a lawsuit that attracted national attention.

The West Valley Girls Softball League is still grappling with the same problem it started with: The season is approaching, and its 500 girls have nowhere permanent to play.

It wasn’t supposed to end this way. Four months ago, the league’s lawyers announced a legal settlement that included $100,000 and a five-year lease on four fields for the girls at Hughes Middle School in Woodland Hills. But the Los Angeles Unified School District--hobbled by upheaval in its top ranks and a severe shortage of schools--has refused to sign off on the deal.

Although Hughes isn’t now being used as a school, the district wants to make sure it retains rights to the space should it reopen in two or three years, said Howard Miller, LAUSD’s chief operating officer.

“Our huge problem in the Los Angeles school district is finding land,” Miller said. “So we can’t be in the position of giving up any of the land we own.”

From the day the girls league sued the city in April 1998, one of its main demands was a long-term field of its own. Many boys leagues have played for decades at the same city-owned baseball fields, adding improvements like bleachers and scoreboards.

“I am beyond frustrated,” said David Berman, president of the West Valley Girls Softball League. “I’m enraged by this . . . We need the fields right now. Our league is in danger of not playing and being disbanded.”

Attorneys for the league filed a status report in federal court last week outlining the stalemate and asking for a trial date.

Mark Rosenbaum, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing the girls, said that when lawyers announced the agreement in October, “all that was required was a few i’s needed to be dotted. We were told that all the school officials were in line on this.”

The school district is not a party to the lawsuit, however, and is within its rights to decline to share fields with the softball league. So far, the city has been unable to come up with an alternative the league will accept.

Assistant City Atty. Mark Brown said the city is still seeking a solution. “We’re attempting to have further discussions,” he said.

Miller said the district is “trying to be helpful” and may agree to a compromise that allows the league access to some fields at Hughes but preserves the LAUSD’s right to use the space if needed.

The softball season is slated to begin Saturday. The league has already spent almost $9,000 on designs for the Hughes fields, according to court documents. “[City officials] are still giving preferential treatment to the boys,” Rosenbaum said. “The girls are back to being a traveling band of players looking for fields to play on.”