Fast brake on NJ gal's expulsion
Judge orders: Let her back in
The New Jersey girl who was expelled because she sued to play on the boys’ basketball team must be allowed to return to the Catholic school, a judge ruled Friday.
The decision came a day after 12-year-old Sydney Phillips and her younger sister, Kaitlyn, were blocked from entering St. Theresa School in Kenilworth.
A lawyer for the Archdiocese of Newark told the family in a letter Wednesday that the girls shouldn’t attend St. Theresa “tomorrow morning or any day thereafter.”
But Appellate Court Judge Amy O’Connor said the girls must be allowed to go back to class pending a hearing.
Sydney found out about the surprise expulsion while running drills with the WNBA’s New York Liberty, which had invited the family to their Tarrytown practice facility.
In December, the Phillips family sued the archdiocese and the school after seventh-grader Sydney wasn’t allowed to try out for the boys basketball team.
She tried to join the squad because the school disbanded the girls team due to lack of players.
Since then, the case has wound through New Jersey courts, with a different judge earlier this month refusing to force St. Theresa to let Sydney play.
That judge said the family hadn’t proved Sydney had a legal right to play with the boys — and that the school’s religious status protects it from bias claims under the state’s discrimination laws.
The family appealed, claiming St. Theresa’s athletic teams are actually governed by the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association — which says girls should be allowed to try out for a boys team when one isn’t available for girls.
A spokesman for the NJIAA, a nonprofit, says the rule only applies to high-school students.
“I love basketball and I just want to play for my school,” Sydney, who plays guard, told The Post in December. “When I found out I couldn’t play, I was really bummed.”
St. Theresa claims it’s allowed to boot students who file lawsuits against the school.
Neither a lawyer for the archdiocese nor the school rep returned messages seeking comment.