Sydney Phillips is a twelve year old New Jersey girl who was a basketball all star at St. Teresa's Catholic School. Last fall, when there weren't enough girls to make up a team, Sydney asked if she could join the boys basketball team. The school said no, so Sydney's parents filed a lawsuit against the school and the Archdiocese of Newark. The judge ruled that the seventh grader had no right to play basketball, so her parents appealed. But here's the
twist in the story. The Archdiocese of Newark expelled both Sydney and her sister from St. Teresa's, signing a school policy that states legal action against the school will result in expulsion. The controversy caused the New York Liberty w NBA team to invite Sydney to practice with them at
Madison Square Garden. Liberty player of Brittany Boyd told New Jersey dot Com why as an organization want to inspire her, Let her know that whatever you want to be, just being and do what you want to do, and don't let nobody ever tell you that you can't do anything. Our guest is Aaron Zuvis, director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies at Western New England School of Law. Let's get right to the core question, Aaron, if there are no facilities for a girl to play a sport,
should she be allowed to play on the boys team? Well, it's a more complicated question than just yes or no. I mean, certainly, if it were up to me, she would be allowed to play on the boys team, given the lack of of any alternative at the school. However, Um,
she goes to a private school. She goes to a private religious school that has the opportunity to insulate itself from civil rights protections by foregoing federal funds, and assuming that it has UM, she doesn't have the right that a student who attends a public school or school that's receiving federal funds would have to UM to insist on that right to play and challenge the retaliatory expulsion that
resulted from her case, Aaron. Doesn't matter whether Um, there's a religious basis for for having her not beyond the boys team, or is it a matter just as I think you were describing that they can't even get in the door UM for this lawsuit. If if the school doesn't accept federal funds. Yeah, I mean her her options for for litigating are really limited by the fact that she's challenging a decision by a private school. UM. The fact that it may be a religious objection, or or
just or or any other objection. It doesn't really it doesn't really matter for the purposes of litigation. Now, I should say that, UM, I understand her lawsuit to the one that the judge throughout, and that I believe she's appealing UM to be rooted in a claim under the
terms of the State of New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association. UM. I don't purport to know the ins and outs of the the requirements of the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association, So I can't really a pine on the merits there. But I can say that, um, she's she's limited to those kinds of claims in the absence of any ability to h to bring a claim understay the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause UM and or Title nine by virtue of
the fact that this is a private school. So the Phillips made an emergency appeal, as you said, and Appellate Court Judge Amy O'Connor issued a temporary order requiring the school to reinstate both girls pending a hearing set for later this week. Does that indicate the fact that the judge did that that there might be something to their case? Uh, well, certainly it does. I don't know the legal basis on which the the parents are challenging now the expulsion. I
assume there must be a more broadly applicable state law. UM. I can say that Title nine, which doesn't apply in this case because it's a private school, has very robust protections for retaliation. UM. So this would be a much clearer case again if this were being considered in the context of public school. I mean, I just, I just think that today is actually a good day to uh to really uh bring up and emphasize these distinctions between
public or private school. I mean, it happens to be just you know, minutes ago, it seems that we um and our Congress approved the nomination of an education secretary who seems to have privatization and a preference for private
schools and private religious schools. Uh. And I think that this story is an important, um, you know, an important thing to have on the air today in light of that fact, because it really underscores, uh, what many people really lis is also at stake when we talk about the difference between private and public schools, and that's the absence of civil rights protection in large part um that a company's decisions to uh, you know, to shift our
education opportunities from them from the public to the private realm, we could really be scaling back on opportunities that students have to uh to challenge discriminatory conditions, whether it be the discrimination of being excluded from athletic opportunities and the discrimination of being then excluded from school for having exercised
your right or attempted to exercise your right to participate. Well, Aaron, you talked about federal funds as being kind of the foothold that that somebody could use to to sue a private school for a discrimination. Um, is that do private schools typically accept federal funds? What are we talking about there in terms of the types and amounts of federal
funds that could be? Right? Well, so when we're talking about K through twelve education, primary and secondary education, Uh, most private schools operate outside the realm of federal funds, though there have been uh a handful of cases that I've come across where a private school is participating in, say a federally subsidized school lunch program or the other programs that might make certain UM either technology resources or
other classroom resources available to private schools that might have a federal funding nexus attached. UM. But for the for the most part, that the the tendency is for private
schools to operate without federal funds. It's a little different at the college level because, uh, for the most part, public and private schools alike will accept students who participate in federal student loan programs, and that becomes a nexus for Title nine's application there Aaron, the parents signed off on the school handbook policy that states parents who sue the school will be asked to remove their children, children will be expelled. Is that a big problem for them
signing that? Uh? I would think so. Yeah. I mean, as a matter of I mean, they've they have chosen to uh to to by by UM by this private school's rules. You know. I gotta say again, I don't know, it hasn't been UM easy to find or reported what the legal grounds are that they are challenging now the expulsion. UH So, if they're making a claim that this is uh,
that there's a specific New Jersey law that protects them. Um. You know, I don't have um an independent analysis of of that particular angle, UM, but I would certainly UM, I would certainly assume that over coming this obstacle of having sort of conceded their legal right to challenge any decision about their ability to continue to go to school, there would be the biggest obstacles that that lawsuit would have to overcome. Well, we will find out more later
in the week when the judge. Here's the case, and certainly the controversy is not is not doing the school any good, but uh, it's it's doing the issue. I guess I'm good. Thank you so much for being on Bloomberg Law. That's Aaron Bzovis, director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies at Western New England School of Law. Greg there was so much online about her playing at Madison Square Garden with the New York Liberty w NBA team that you have to wonder if that might have
some kind of an impact on the archdiocese. Yeah, certainly will raise a visibility. You know, this is one of these cases where you look at it and I think most people would the reaction would be, Wow, that's gender discrimination, no question about it. But for the reasons that Aaron described, that doesn't necessarily mean legally you have a case against your your private Catholic school exactly. Coming up more on
the school system, but this time in Nevada. New teachers in the state of Nevada will not have to know about the US Constitution or the state constitution. If Senate Bill twenty is past, should the state be lowering standards for teachers because of the shortage of teachers. I'm June Grasso with Greg Storf. This is Bloomberg