ACLU urges West Carroll school to let girl play football
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CARROLL COUNTY, Tenn. — The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee is now urging West Carroll Junior/Senior High School to allow a girl to play football. The law firm and advocacy organization on Wednesday sent a letter to the West Carroll Special School District, according to an ACLU release. The letter was sent on behalf of Thalia Townsend. Townsend, 13, has told WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News she has played two seasons for a local junior pro league when she was in fifth and sixth grade. ” Nine time out of ten in my experience with ACLU and not with the ACLU, with these types of disputes they get resolved without having to do anything but have a conversation,” Thomas Castelli said. She now wants to play football at West Carroll Junior/Senior High School but was told she couldn’t because she’s a girl. ” All she is asking for is a chance to play with her teammates that she played with the past two years,” Michelle Larsen said. School officials said they didn’t have to allow her to play because of Title 9, a law meant to give women equal rights. The ACLU argues Title 9 does not give the school the right to exclude her from the football team even if the school also has a softball team for girls. “Schools cannot exclude girls from the sport of their choice based solely on their gender,” ACLU-TN legal director Thomas H. Castelli states in the release. “The Fourteenth Amendment protects girls from such unequal treatment. For over 40 years, courts have made it clear that if a girl wants to play football and there is not an equivalent football team for girls, she must be allowed equal access to the boys’ team.” Townsend will begin school at West Carroll Junior High in the fall.
