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One should (must) recognize that most (if not all) school districts in Texas have significant Title IX issues. As of the 2018-19 school year, there was an overall 9% to 11% gap* between female athletic participation and their enrollment in Texas public schools based on UIL participation data and TEA enrollment data. In a state where high school football is touted as being "king" and famous for its "Friday Night Lights", there are numerous school districts, large and small, with considerable discrepancies in female athletic opportunities and resources provided compared to their male peers.
Though the process has been abnormally prolonged and still ongoing, we hope highlighting efforts to have rugby added as a girls varsity sport in Fort Worth ISD will help parents, female students, concerned faculty/coaches and other allies prepare their own Title IX case(s).
* The Office of Civil Rights states there should be 0% disparity ("gap") between the proportion of female athletes to the proportion of female students in a school / school district and that the overall provision of resources must be equitable to be compliant under Title IX, unless all female athletic interests are being met. (That's a big no!)
Why The Push For Varsity Status?
Why The Push For Varsity Status?
Rugby was introduced to Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD or District) in the fall of 2007 as an activity under the District's Afterschool Program. While there was male interest in the sport, the female students at Paschal HS and Trimble Technical HS really took to learning and playing the sport. During the first two year as an FW Afterschool Program activity there were roughly 30+ and 40+ females participants at Pachal and Trimble Tech High Schools, respectively. Instead of continuing to support a previously unrecognized female athletic interest, the schools and the District's athletic department allowed the coaches for male varsity sports to restrict afterschool field usage. And, due to limited grant funding, the District discontinued FW Afterschool Programing at most of its HS campuses by 2011.
Despite changes, female student interest in rugby continued. Student rugby clubs where established on multiple campuses. By 2014, female participants began recognizing that rugby needed to a varsity sport to overcome various obsticles, particularly access to safe practice spaces, the school athletic trainer, and transportation to competition. In the fall of 2015, the Principal at Trimble Technical HS asked the Executive Athletic Director about makeing rugby a girls' varsity. He was told the Athletic Department only supports UIL (the state athletic association) sanctioned sports. After consultation with the Principal, female students, and Title IX advisors, the faculty-advisor / coach for the Trimble Tech HS girls' rugby team (our Excutive Director, Alex McCulloch) sent an email communication in January, 2016, to the FWISD Superintendent, all Board of Education Trustees, the Executive Athletic Director and the Title IX Coordinator advocating for the inclusion of rugby as girls' varsity sport.
To date, the District has refused to add rugby as a girls' varsity despite continued actions and supporting documents submitted by female students across FWISD and the faculty-advisor / coach for the Trimble Tech HS girls' rugby team to all key decision makers. As of the 2023-24 academic year, Fort Worth ISD is being investigated by the Office of Civil Rights for its lack of action to continuously accommodate the interests and abilities of its female students. A report of the OCR Invesitgators findings should be available by March, 2024.
For those interested in a fuller chronology of actions taken thus far (Sept, 2023) and major documents created to get FWISD to address its deficiences under Title IX and add rugby as a female varsity sport within the District, please complete the request form here. You may also simply request the OCR complaint along with its supporting documents.
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