She wants to play basketball with boys
Catholic school said no to her request, then expelled girl when her parents sued
The courtroom battle began in December with a fight over a court of different sorts — and a 12-yearold girl’s access to it.
Sydney Phillips, from Kenilworth, N.J., had plans to spend her winter playing on the seventh grade girls basketball team at St. Theresa’s Catholic school. She competed the year before, reported NJ.com, and was even named an all-star.
But in the fall, when not enough of her female classmates showed interest, St. Theresa’s cancelled its season.
Sydney asked if instead she could play with the boys.
School officials said no. Their message, Sydney’s father said, was simple: Girls play with girls, boys play with boys.
That reasoning didn’t satisfy Scott Phillips and his wife. They decided to file 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 had on their hands.
On Feb. 1, an email and letter explained Sydney and her younger sister, a fifth grade student, were no longer welcome at St. Theresa’s, reported NBC 4 in New York.
The Archdiocese of Newark decided to expel the girls, citing a school handbook 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. “And this is the church? This is the archdiocese? They should be ashamed of themselves.”
The following 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, said Phillips’ lawyer, Susan McCrea, to 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 Judge 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.
The school and archdiocese declined to comment on the case, 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 their offer to let the seventh-grader 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.”
When the New York Liberty WNBA team heard of Sydney’s plight, the women invited the girl, her little sister and another friend 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.
Sydney’s father said his daughter wouldn’t be taking a boy’s spot on the team because it has a no-cut policy and 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.”