Parents, on behalf of and as next of friends of their minor daughters, filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on May 21, 1997, against Independent School District #8 of Texas County, also known as Guymon Public Schools, alleging that the school district had violated the students' rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972. The plaintiffs sought class certification on behalf of all present and future female students of Guymon schools who participate, seek to participate, or are deterred from participating in interscholastic athletics and other school sponsored activities. Judge Ralph G. Thompson granted class certification on December 8, 1997.

In a settlement agreement approved on September 20, 1999, the school district agreed to take affirmative steps to increase female student participation in athletics. Specifically, the district agreed to announce its support of female athletics, notify students of the timing and location of try-outs, conduct a survey to gauge interest in new sports not already offered, introduce intramural sports when sufficient interest exists but there is not the opportunity for interscholastic competition, add fast pitch softball at the middle school level, establish new teams to accommodate the athletic ability of female athletes that are cut from their respective teams, and schedule extracurricular activities to avoid conflicts so as to allow students to participate in more than one activity. The district also agreed to establish a system of accounting for equitable expenditures for male and female sports, and to make such report available upon request. The district also agreed to provide basic equipment and supplies to both male and female teams on an equitable basis, provide female athletes with uniforms comparable to those of the male athletes, schedule practices and competitions at favorable times to both male and female athletes, treat both genders equally with respect to expenditures for travel, meals and lodging, select coaches for male and female teams using the same criteria, and provide comparable practice and training facilities to both male and female teams. Finally, the district agreed to add equipment suitable for female athletes to the weight rooms and to promote and publicize female teams in a comparable manner as male teams. The district agreed to pay the plaintiffs' attorneys' fees.

The case was dismissed on September 21, 1999.

Carlyn Williams - 04/14/2014


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