Like many seventh graders, 13-year-old Sydney Phillips just wanted to play basketball on her school team. And when the girls’ team at St. Teresa’s in Kenilworth, New Jersey folded before the season, Sydney and her family figured she could just play with the boys instead.
But the school rejected that plan, leading to a saga that resulted in Sydney and her daughter being expelled from school, according to People.
Here’s how Scott Phillips, Sydney’s father, described what happened when he and his wife inquired about getting Syndey on the boys’ team.
“Instead of saying, ‘Let’s talk about it,’ or ‘Let’s look into it,’ it was a resounding ‘No’ from the athletic director,” says Phillips, 63, a retired police officer. “It was a simple request: just move a girl over to the boys’ league. It’s a no tryout league. There was nothing about if she can keep up with the boys. And as it happens, Sydney is a very, very good athlete, and her moving to the boys’ team would only help them.”
Scott asked if the school had a rule in writing stating that girls were not allowed to play on boys’ teams, which he says they couldn’t produce.
“They said that boys only play with boys, and girls only play with girls,” he says.
The Phillips family was unhappy with the school’s response, and it’s hard to blame them. Their daughter wanted to play basketball and was being denied the opportunity specifically because of her gender.
So they sued. Again, all they wanted was for Sydney to be able to play basketball.
And instead of acquiescing and letting the girl play, St. Teresa’s notified Scott last week that Sydney and her sister had been expelled. When the girls showed up at school the next day, guards asked them to leave.
“[The school] called the Archdiocese, and they said their decision was that they were expelling my daughters at that exact instant,” says Scott. “They told [my daughters] that if they didn’t leave the school, they were trespassers and could be arrested. My 11-year -old was hysterically crying.”
On Friday morning, Scott filed a motion for an emergency hearing, and the appellate court agreed, with the judge ruling that the girls will be allowed back in school on Monday.
“This isn’t about the money,” he says. “We just want Sydney to be able to play basketball.”
This is one of those stories that you literally struggle to believe is actually true. It’s 2017, 45 years after the passage of Title IX, and we’re still preventing girls from playing sports.
Phillips visited the New York Liberty last week, where she showed that 1) She’s got game and 2) She deserves the opportunity to show it off.
One sided garbage. The girls parents are a couple of jerks.