   Jill O'Brien 2009-06-27 . chapter 1Information you really, really need to know:
Congress passes Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any education program or activities receiving Federal financial assistance.”
I have a hard time seeing the situation you set up in chapters one and two actually happening in a contemporary school. The school board would know about Title IX and the crap that would hit the fan if the female sports program were unilaterally cut at your character's school. The ACLU would be all over it like white on rice, there'd be a lot of negative press and major outrage and protest from the community, not to mention the multiple lawsuits that would be brought against the school district by various parents on behalf of their daughters. Your character, wanting to play so badly, would definitely find out about Title IX in the course of her research to see what, if anything, would bar her from trying out for men's baseball. She'd just have to wave that in the coach's face to get what she wanted. Permission from the principal is a moot point because there is *nothing* he can do to stop her unless he's willing to risk his job. The principal could try to cut all women's sports but even if the board were stupid enough to go along with him when the crap hit the fan they'd have absolutely no choice but to reinstate women's sports and the principal would face censure and discipline (probably fired). If the coach was actively working to prevent females from getting on men's teams, he'd be fired, no question.
As for her father stopping her, that's something else entirely. The principal and coach could be 150% for her trying out and if her dad doesn't give permission then she cannot try out, period, end of story. No coach opposed to women on his guy's team is going to let her try out if her father hasn't given his consent to her trying out. She'd also need to have up to date health forms on file in the nurse's office and if her father doesn't want her in sports then she's totally out of luck. The doctor's office cannot legally release anything to her--as a minor, her parent/guardian has to sign off on everything. *thinks* Actually, look into what is (not) allowed under HIPPA. I'm not sure if there's something in that which could provide loophole enough for your character to get what she needs independent of her father.
If she was willing to do whatever it took to try out and make the team, all she'd need to do is forge her father's signature on permission forms and pull one over on the doctor's office. I forget what hoops I had to jump through when I tried out for field hockey so it could be quite easy to get the doctor to fill out and sign the forms w/o them knowing the truth or your character might have to work hard to pull it off. Trying to pull that off would make for excellent conflict in the story along with what's going on between her and Jared. |
FictionPress.com - let the words flow