HOOPS GETS POLITICAL
Girl expelled by U.S. school
The courtroom battle began in December with a fight over a court of different sorts — and a 12-year-old girl’s access to it.
Sydney Phillips, from Kenilworth, N.J., had plans to spend her winter playing on the Grade 7 girls’ basketball team at St. Theresa’s Catholic school. She had competed the year before, nj.com has reported, and was even named an all-star.
But in the fall, when too few of her female classmates showed interest, St. Theresa’s cancelled their season. So Sydney asked if she could play with the boys. School officials said no.
Their message, according to Sydney’s father, was simple: Girls play with girls, boys play with boys. But that reasoning didn’t satisfy Scott Phillips and his wife, who filed a lawsuit against the Catholic school and the archdiocese of Newark on their daughter’s behalf. Sydney, they argued, shouldn’t be held back just because she is a girl.
The parents argued the school was in violation of the rules of the Interstate Athletic Association, the New York Post reported, which say girls should be permitted to try out for boys’ teams in the absence of a girls’ team. The association, however, told the New York Post that only applies to high schools.
Superior Court Judge Donald Kessler ruled the 12-year-old had no legal right to play basketball. In mid-January, as the basketball season ticked away, Sydney’s parents appealed.
Last week, the couple learned Sydney’s right to play basketball wasn’t the only fight they would have on their hands.
On Feb. 1, an email and letter explained that Sydney and her younger sister, a Grade 5 student, were no longer welcome at St. Theresa’s, according to a report from NBC 4 in New York. The archdiocese of Newark decided to expel the girls, citing a policy that states parents who sue the school will be asked to remove their children.
The correspondence, Phillips told nj.com, said neither of his daughters “should be coming to St. Theresa’s school tomorrow morning or any day thereafter.”
Phillips told nj.com he was “just plain disgusted.”
“They did nothing wrong,” Phillips told nj.com of his daughters. “And this is the church? This is the archdiocese? They should be ashamed of themselves.”
The next day, Phillips showed up at St. Theresa’s with his daughters anyway, where they were met by the church pastor, the associate pastor, the school principal and three Kenilworth police officers, Phillips’ lawyer, Susan McCrea, told nj.com. They were threatened with criminal trespassing charges, McCrea said.
That same day, McCrea filed for a court order to get the girls back in school, which Kessler denied.
On Friday came an emergency appeal. Appellate court Judge Amy O’Connor issued a temporary order requiring the school to reinstate the girls pending a hearing set for later this week.
For their part, the school and archdiocese declined to comment on the case specifically, according to local media, but did send letters to other parents at the school explaining the situation. They claimed in the initial lawsuit that Sydney didn’t turn in her application form for the basketball team by the deadline — something her parents refute — and that their offer to let the 12-year-old play on a girls’ team at a nearby school was declined.
In the middle of it all is Sydney, who last week said she didn’t understand.
“I just asked to play basketball and now I’m being expelled,” she told NBC 4. “It makes no sense at all.”
The girl has played basketball since she was in preschool, nj.com has reported, and has aspirations to compete in high school and, if she can get good enough, maybe even college.
When the New York Liberty WNBA team heard of Sydney’s plight, the girl, her little sister and another friend were invited to practice with them at their Madison Square Garden training centre. Sydney was on the court with them when her father found out his daughters had been expelled.
“It has to start being more equal,” Scott Phillips has told NBC 4. “We have to come with the times.”
U.S. Olympic medallist Teresa Weatherspoon, the Liberty’s director of player development, told the TV station they wanted to support the young girl and show her she should have the same opportunities as the boys. Sydney also got to FaceTime with retired Liberty player Swin Cash, who works in the team’s front office as director of franchise development, according to USA Today’s blog For The Win.
“I’m really happy to just see that our organization is one that’s committed to shining a spotlight on situations like this and making her and her family feel the love and support of the Liberty,” Cash told For The Win.
Sydney’s father said his daughter wouldn’t take a boy’s spot on the team because it has a no-cut policy, and that, in fact, her talents should be embraced as a welcome addition. Sydney agreed. “I’m bummed I couldn’t play,” she told NBC 4. “I’m better than them.”