>From the Bergen Record:
“An agreement that would allow coed teams was signed late Friday by the Ridgewood Biddy Basketball program, the state Division on Civil Rights and the parents of Caitlin Alvaro, 12, who was barred from playing with boys even though she was considered as good as many of them. … In late October, Caitlin signed up for the fifth- and sixth-grade boys team mostly because they use a regulation hoop that is 10 feet high. The fifth- and sixth-grade Biddy girls teams shoot at an 8�-foot hoop, which Caitlin said would throw off her game, since she played with a regulation hoop in two other girls basketball leagues.
The board denied Caitlin’s request, saying her participation would “undermine the program and would, over time if not immediately, have a negative effect on the quality of opportunity of play with the various leagues,” according to papers filed with the state.
Her parents – Joseph Alvaro and Frances Edwards – filed a complaint with the state Division on Civil Rights. After a two-month investigation, the division found that Biddy prohibited Caitlin “simply because she is a female and not for any reason associated with ability or other non-discriminatory basis.”
This part of the article really irks me, given that it was the school district that I’d had to fight:
… The civil rights division petitioned the Ridgewood school district in January to intervene, since the games were played in school gyms.
State officials said the school system did not agree to the settlement, and that part of the dispute will be heard by an administrative law judge. District officials would not comment Tuesday.”
Seems like Caitlin won the war. even if the battle with the BOE only yielded an apology. Perhaps it was that apology that prevented the alvoros from filing an appeal for an appelate court hearing.
The BOE never apologizes. Wonder why they did in this case?
