Female Student Wants to Play On the Boy’s Team, Church Pushes Right Back

by Tiffiny Ruegner | July 8, 2017 6:18 pm

By Right Wing News’ Cassy Fiano

Children across the country often want to participate in sports. That much is natural and should be encouraged. But should girls be allowed to play on a boys’ team? One family demanded that their daughter be allowed to play on the boys’ basketball team[1]… but their Catholic school didn’t back down.

[2]

Sydney Phillips is a 13 year-old who previously had played girls’ basketball for St. Theresa’s Catholic School in New Jersey. Unfortunately for Phillips, there was a lack of interest in the team, which caused the school to be forced to drop the girls’ team altogether.

That Phillips was disappointed is certainly understandable. But her parents then decided that they would try to force the school to allow her to play on the boys’ team instead. The school refused and her parents retaliated by filing a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Newark. The family won the suit and Phillips was allowed to play for one game with the boys’ team at the end of the season. But the school responded by rejecting the applications for Sydney and her sister, so neither could attend the school in the fall. The family is now seeking a court order to force the school to allow the girls to attend.

But the school — and the Archdiocese — wasn’t about to be intimidated. Archdiocese Vice Chancellor and Director of Communications James Goodness responded to the lawsuit with an epic statement

“”The plaintiffs have demonstrated clearly and strongly that, in their minds, the rules and laws of St. Theresa School and Parish do not apply to them,” Goodness said. “Rules may be fine for other parents and students in the St. Theresa community, but not for them. Everyone must treat them and their children differently.” He said that the Phillips family had “created intimidation and fear in parents, school officials and, yes, students.”

He also questioned why the Phillips would want to send their children to a school that they so clearly disagree with. “That said, we need to ask the question: ‘If the plaintiffs do not wish to abide by the rules; if they do not wish to embrace St. Theresa’s long-held educational philosophy; and if they are, as only they contend, the recipients of such injustice, then why do they persist in forcing their children to attend St. Theresa School?’,” Goodness stated.

“We can only surmise that the plaintiffs wish to impose their own rules on the community, and replace collaboration with diktat,” he concluded.

Ouch. Score one for Goodness and the Archdiocese.

Endnotes:
  1. demanded that their daughter be allowed to play on the boys’ basketball team: http://www.dailywire.com/news/18138/girl-wanted-play-boys-basketball-team-so-she-sued-amanda-prestigiacomo#
  2. [Image]: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/sydney-phillips-e1498865535198.jpg

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