Kansas: School Forfeits Football Game Rather than Play Girl

St. Mary's Academy in northeast Kansas is a private Catholic school that believes so strongly in gender segregation that it was willing to accept forfeiting a football game rather than play a team that included a girl. Because the school isn't a member of any activities associations, no other punishments are possible.

The Daily Journal reports:

[W]hen coach Bobby Rehse called St. Mary's to make sure freshman guard Kara Dowell would have her own dressing room, officials at the private school said St. Mary's would not play against a girl. "I called them a couple of times," Tanner said. "They're firm in their beliefs. Their request was to not suit her up that night."

Tanner said Kara, who plays mostly on the junior varsity, offered to sit the game out. Instead, White City officials decided not to go at all. "We want the kids to learn to stand up for what they believe," he said. "That's why we weren't going to not suit her up." ... Kara told the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World that she was upset by the private school's position. "We worked so hard for women's rights, and they won't play a girl," she said. "Girls have a right to do anything that a guy can do."

St. Mary's is associated with the Society of Saint Pius X, a group that opposes the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and would like to return the Catholic Church to pre-Vatican II rules and worship. Many people might look upon this incident relatively benignly — after all, if a religious school doesn't want to play against teams of both girls and boys, why should they? But what if a school believed in strict racial or religious segregation and refused to play against teams that included both whites and black or both Christians and Jews? I doubt that the school's actions would be treated quite as generously. This situation really shouldn't be regarded any differently.

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