Baseball stands ordered torn down for being better than softball's

[DeskMonkey1]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/baseball-parents-ordered-to-take-down-seats-deemed-superior-to-softball-bleachers-210604955.html

"The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation following an anonymous complaint. Ultimately, officials demanded that the seating and scoreboard be torn down because the upgrades are superior to Plymouth's girls' softball facilities. The boys' seating is also not handicap accessible, which is a separate violation of government regulations."

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I guess the softball parents could hold their own fundraisers, no?

 

[Starman]

While they're at it, the Plymouth school district:

.... should get ready for a friendly little phone call from the....

Seems like the Plymouth athletic department has a lot of people with the attitude of, "We're just going to go and do whatever the hell we want," without worrying very much about any possible consequences.

 

[ColdCat]

I guess the softball parents could hold their own fundraisers, no?

and hold quite successful ones. There is no shortage of cash in that district.

Well, across town at Plymouth High

Not sure I would call it "across town" since the two schools are .8 miles apart

http://www.pccs.k12.mi.us/sites/pccs.k12.mi.us/files/shared/district-map-20120801.pdf

 

[Starman]

The aluminum bleachers shown at the softball facility are much better than the seating structures at about 98% of the HS baseball fields I have ever seen.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Well, across town at Plymouth High

Not sure I would call it "across town" since the two schools are .8 miles apart

http://www.pccs.k12.mi.us/sites/pccs.k12.mi.us/files/shared/district-map-20120801.pdf

All three high schools are that close. Even more unique, there's a good chance that players from opposite teams/schools have a class together.

 

[bigpern23]

While they're at it, the Plymouth school district:

.... should get ready for a friendly little phone call from the....

Seems like the Plymouth athletic department has a lot of people with the attitude of, "We're just going to go and do whatever the hell we want," without worrying very much about any possible consequences.

High schools co-opting professional logos is common practice. Very few pro teams are dumb enough to sue.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Using Title IX as an argument for this is quite possibly one of the dumbest ****ing things in the history of dumb ****ing Title IX arguments.

"Equal opportunity" has nothing to do with bleachers or scoreboards. You want nice bleachers? Raise the ****ing money like the baseball parents did.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

While they're at it, the Plymouth school district:

.... should get ready for a friendly little phone call from the....

Seems like the Plymouth athletic department has a lot of people with the attitude of, "We're just going to go and do whatever the hell we want," without worrying very much about any possible consequences.

High schools co-opting professional logos is common practice. Very few pro teams are dumb enough to sue.

It's not that college and pro teams really care if some podunk high school copies their logo, but if they don't at least send a cease and desist letter and tell them to change it courts might rule they aren't making an effort to protect their copyright. Then they can't licence their apparel.

This school might be OK. There are some subtle difference between that logo and Nashville. The eye is different and so is the striping in the middle. The changes don't really have to be big. Ever notice the tiny little notch in the bottom of Clemson's paw logo? That's so they can copyright it as something different than every other paw out there.

 

[bigpern23]

While they're at it, the Plymouth school district:

.... should get ready for a friendly little phone call from the....

Seems like the Plymouth athletic department has a lot of people with the attitude of, "We're just going to go and do whatever the hell we want," without worrying very much about any possible consequences.

High schools co-opting professional logos is common practice. Very few pro teams are dumb enough to sue.

It's not that college and pro teams really care if some podunk high school copies their logo, but if they don't at least send a cease and desist letter and tell them to change it courts might rule they aren't making an effort to protect their copyright. Then they can't licence their apparel.

This school might be OK. There are some subtle difference between that logo and Nashville. The eye is different and so is the striping in the middle. The changes don't really have to be big. Ever notice the tiny little notch in the bottom of Clemson's paw logo? That's so they can copyright it as something different than every other paw out there.

My response was more focused on Starman's assertion that this is a program with an "attitude of we're going to do whatever the hell we want." I don't see the logo as some sort of attitude problem with the administration.

I get what you're saying about protecting the copyright, but yeah, as you noted, the logo is sufficiently different enough that they'd probably be OK.

 

[slappy4428]

While they're at it, the Plymouth school district:

.... should get ready for a friendly little phone call from the....

Seems like the Plymouth athletic department has a lot of people with the attitude of, "We're just going to go and do whatever the hell we want," without worrying very much about any possible consequences.

Yeah.... about that....
The school's original mascot was going to be the Predators ... until (yeah, you know where this is going)... a handful of the usual PC folks with nothing else to do questions the district's need to name its athletic teams after of group of people that preys on children and women. Yeah, sexual predators.
So because they worried about being viewed as insensitive, they changed the name from Predators to Wildcats.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

I'm not a legal scholar, but I can't see as how this is a violation. If I understand correctly, the school system didn't spend the money to upgrade the facilities; the parents did it themselves.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I'm not a legal scholar, but I can't see as how this is a violation. If I understand correctly, the school system didn't spend the money to upgrade the facilities; the parents did it themselves.

It's not about the school spending the money, it's about the school accepting the donation and having the unequal facilities on its property. That's where they get caught.

What the school needed to do is either build a softball stand similar to the baseball stand or refuse the baseball parents' donation. Or, split the donation in half.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

Ahhhh, the good ole American way ... one group goes to work and earns something nice for itself while the other group whines until the government takes half and gives it to them.

 

[expendable]

So, we can now say that softball is girls baseball?

 

[RonClements]

The guy down the street has a better house than we do. He should have to tear it down to make his home equal to ours.

 

[JayFarrar]

I'm not a legal scholar, but I can't see as how this is a violation. If I understand correctly, the school system didn't spend the money to upgrade the facilities; the parents did it themselves.

It's not about the school spending the money, it's about the school accepting the donation and having the unequal facilities on its property. That's where they get caught.

What the school needed to do is either build a softball stand similar to the baseball stand or refuse the baseball parents' donation. Or, split the donation in half.

I need to read bob cook on this as I suspect there's much more to the story.

Anyway, if Title IX is really the reason, then it will set off a **** storm of issues around the country.

First, if it was private money, the Feds saying how it can be spent is a stink bomb of epic proportions.

Second, equal opportunities isn't the same as equal facilities. Many college basketball teams have one facility for men and another for women.

 

[Armchair_QB]

I'm not a legal scholar, but I can't see as how this is a violation. If I understand correctly, the school system didn't spend the money to upgrade the facilities; the parents did it themselves.

It's not about the school spending the money, it's about the school accepting the donation and having the unequal facilities on its property. That's where they get caught.

What the school needed to do is either build a softball stand similar to the baseball stand or refuse the baseball parents' donation. Or, split the donation in half.

I need to read bob cook on this as I suspect there's much more to the story.

Anyway, if Title IX is really the reason, then it will set off a **** storm of issues around the country.

First, if it was private money, the Feds saying how it can be spent is a stink bomb of epic proportions.

Second, equal opportunities isn't the same as equal facilities. Many college basketball teams have one facility for men and another for women.

The only reason this is a Title IX violation is because the ****ing judge in this case is a complete ****ing idiot and should be disbarred immediately.

Title IX - as far as sports are concerned - is about providing access to opportunity, not access to equal facilities for two different sports.

The only time facilities should come into play would be in like sports - such as swimming, basketball or tennis and even then it's a stretch.

Baseball is not ****ing softball. Softball is not baseball. The sports are not the same, the facilities needed for them are not the same.

And bleachers have nothing to do with opportunity. **** like this is just infuriating.

 

[old_tony]

This single-digit-IQ judge is next going to rule that since there's a 3,000-seat football stadium, there also needs to be bleacher seating for 3,000 at the cross country course.

 

[ColdCat]

I'm not a legal scholar, but I can't see as how this is a violation. If I understand correctly, the school system didn't spend the money to upgrade the facilities; the parents did it themselves.

It's not about the school spending the money, it's about the school accepting the donation and having the unequal facilities on its property. That's where they get caught.

What the school needed to do is either build a softball stand similar to the baseball stand or refuse the baseball parents' donation. Or, split the donation in half.

I need to read bob cook on this as I suspect there's much more to the story.

Anyway, if Title IX is really the reason, then it will set off a **** storm of issues around the country.

First, if it was private money, the Feds saying how it can be spent is a stink bomb of epic proportions.

Second, equal opportunities isn't the same as equal facilities. Many college basketball teams have one facility for men and another for women.

The only reason this is a Title IX violation is because the ****ing judge in this case is a complete ****ing idiot and should be disbarred immediately.

Title IX - as far as sports are concerned - is about providing access to opportunity, not access to equal facilities for two different sports.

The only time facilities should come into play would be in like sports - such as swimming, basketball or tennis and even then it's a stretch.

Baseball is not ****ing softball. Softball is not baseball. The sports are not the same, the facilities needed for them are not the same.

And bleachers have nothing to do with opportunity. **** like this is just infuriating.

since one of them once declared that girls playing basketball in the fall was unequal, I'd say Michigan judges take a pretty wide interpretation of Title IX.