Nonprofit Association Ordered to Pay Millions for Title IX Violation

The Michigan High School Athletic Association has been ordered to pay $7.4-million in legal bills, plus interest, after a U.S. District judge ruled that the group’s scheduling system was found to have discriminated against some female student-athletes, reports the Associated Press.

Kristen Galles, a public-interest lawyer in Alexandria, Va., represented a small group of women who filed a lawsuit nearly 10 years ago claiming that their daughters were discriminated against because girls’ high-school basketball and volleyball in Michigan were played in seasons opposite those of colleges and most other states’ high schools.

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Enslen ruled against the association on every point of the suit in December 2001, citing violations of the Constitution, the federal anti-discrimination law Title IX, and a Michigan civil-rights law. The association appealed the decision, a process that ended in April 2007 when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

“I’m hoping schools will wake up and realize they need new leadership,” Ms. Galles said of the association’s membership. “They are lucky parents and kids didn’t seek monetary damages. The bills could have been significantly higher.”

A spokesman for the athletic association, John Johnson, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the group would not comment on the ruling for another week to 10 days.

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