The Kansas State High School Activities Association said referees reported that Michelle Campbell was preparing to officiate at St. Mary’s Academy near Topeka on Feb. 2 when a school official insisted that Campbell could not call the game.
The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy’s beliefs.
Campbell then walked off the court along with Darin Putthoff, the referee who was to work the game with her.
Link via Bitch. Ph.D. who added “Of course the immediate thought is, what about those boys’ mamas?”
The real question is whether this bastion of discrimination receives any state or federal funds for either its academy or college. This action would appear to violate both state and federal discrimination laws for such funding, as well as potentially Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. These violations should result in a loss of any such publicly financed funds and potentially open them up to a Title VII suit (i.e. at the very least the other school is a public education institution and this act attacks her employment rights relevant to that public institution).
Perhaps the real short-term solution for that particular situation would have been for Campbell and Putthoff to declare St. Mary’s Academy forfeit and awarded an automatic victory to the other school.
The long-term consequence might have been that St. Mary’s Academy would have been forced to re-evaluate their stance on this issue and either comply or drop all activities in which their male students were potentially exposed to the authority of women.