From Alternet, an article about athletes and pregnancy:
Darnellia gave birth to her daughter Trekayla in December 2002. When she tried to return to the team as a senior, she had too few academic credits to play because of missed school during her pregnancy. She made up the credits, yet still was denied eligibility under Washington state rules that govern high school athletics — her pregnancy was not a “hardship,” a designation that would allow her to make up the credits and qualify. Darnellia had hoped, through an athletic scholarship, to fulfill her dream of becoming the first in her family to go to college. She had letters of interest from a number of schools before she got pregnant. After the baby the interest pretty much disappeared, and with it, Darnellia’s dreams of a college education and maybe even the WNBA.
Women’s basketball has come a long way since the first game at Smith College on March 21, 1893 — with a major boost from Title IX passage in 1972. It’s no news flash that young women accidentally get pregnant, and Title IX regulations would seem to offer students some protection. They state that recipients of federal funds “must treat disabilities related to pregnancy the same way as any other temporary disability in any medical or hospital benefit, service, plan or policy which they offer to students. … Following this leave, the student must be reinstated to her original status.”
Yet no uniform policy at either the school or professional level protects a pregnant athlete’s rights. The resulting insecurity, especially for athletes on scholarship, can cause women to hide their pregnancies or have abortions. Of course, the guys who get women pregnant suffer no repercussions, financial or otherwise.
So it caused her to miss school such that she had too few credits, but it wasn’t a “hardship” because…? Can anyone help me figure out why this woman’s pregnancy didn’t qualify for accomodation? Why she was punished rather than assisted, and refused the opportunity to come back to the game? I’m stumped. And did you catch the part at the end about how these rules might keep female athletes from taking adequate care of themselves, and might even pressure them into abortion?
Because she had sex, so it was her own danged fault. Why didn’t she just listen to her abstinence only professor and not ever have sex.
Oh, I’m sorry, were we looking for a LOGICAL reason for it to be treated as it was? Because I don’t think you’re going to find one.
While I am nopt in general a big fan of Title IX, I do think that it would behoove schools to to try to help pregnant athletes be able to keep up with their sports to the fullest extent possible, particularly those who are relying on their athletic ability to get a scholarship.
So, yeah, I think that what the school did was bad.
I dunno — to me the question is fairness. You could make an argument that if she choose freely to have sex (which argument is itself somewhat flawed — minors cannot freely consent to sex which is why we have statutory rape laws), at least if she was not forced or coerced into sex, then it’s her decision to have a baby (of course it helps if you’re pro-choice when making this argument) or do something that might involve a baby, so she should have to live with the consequences of that decision.
But then the same argument should be applied to boys as well: if a boy becomes a father, he should have to make the same sacrifices that a girl would make. Since biology dictates that the boy will never have the same degree of hardship — well, society must equalize things and grant the girl a degree of hardship protection that it doesn’t necessarily (although it perhaps should be willing to for boys dedicated toward being a real father to a child they have helped to conceive) end up extending to boys.
If boys are getting away with knocking up girls and not having it derail their sports careers, then it is only fair they help out the girls in this situation. Of course, life isn’t fair, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for fairness — and that striving shouldn’t, in fact, be an affirmative action.
Those consequences are imposed, though. There’s nothing biological about her inability to qualify after doing the makeup work.
Well, the issue is that she was punished for having a baby. She wasn’t allowed to resume her sports efforts at a commensurate level.
And as you point out, that wouldn’t happen to a guy. The consequences of their decisions are not the same.
Kind of the definition of sexism there.
As to a reason she was treated this way? well, because she was a SLUT, and we must punish/shame anybody who violates the patriarchal roles that have been assigned. Unless, as esme said, you’re looking for a rational reason.
Trekayla, huh? Cute. *likes*
*overcomes distraction by the cuteness to return to issue at hand*
Evil school. On a par with the Catholic school that forbade the pregnant student (but not the father) to participate in the graduation ceremony, and this is, if I’m not mistaken, a public school? It is also pressure to have an abortion, which is of course anathema to the concept of choice.
I wonder, how many pro-life groups are going to be latching onto this, screaming at the school for encouraging abortions by punishing this woman for “choosing life?”
*does not hold breath*
Good lawd, the MRAs really like this subject. I love the whole she’s responsible for “getting herself pregnant.” I think there’s a little womb envy going on here.
Personally, I do not think that pregnancy should be treated like a disability, but I do think the “hardship” rules should apply.
Well, and there are 8 million other things that happen to athletes because of their own choices that they are not punished for. For instance, if you are a college basketball player who breaks his leg skiing, you are not forced off the team. In the same way we don’t deny medical treatment to people who have smoked too long, drank too much, took too many drugs, etc… Just because you willingly had sex does not mean that you deserve to be treated like crap if you choose to keep the baby.
As someone who has been pregnant a couple times (I am currently less than a month from delivery), let’s see if I can describe hardship. 1)Extreme sciatic nerve pain resulting in a hardtime walking 2) Feeling of a bowling ball pressing against your cervix everytime you stand up 3)Heartburn to the point you wake up in the middle pf the night 4)Speaking of sleeping, hah… no sleep for you. I wake up probably one to two times an hour with pain in my stomach muscles or a well placed head butt. I’m estatic to be pregnant, but at this point, a broken leg sounds like more fun.
In my state, “hardship” is very clear. You have to have a full-time job while committing yourself as a full-time high school student. Either you a) have to financially support yourself as a minor, or b) you have to help support your family as a minor. In my state, having a baby and supporting it would clearly count as “hardship.”
Unfortunately, as I found while I was a pregnant high school student — if you are not yet taking care of a separate physical human being, you are not yet suffering a “hardship.” Thus despite being unable to attend school due to the illnesses I experienced during my pregnancy, I was still resposinble for all of those credits in full. I finished high school in an alternative school and made out with a full diploma, but just barely. I wouldn’t have even had a chance if I’d been playing a sport as well, so a big ol’ hell yeah to Darnellia even if she didn’t get the scholarship. I hope she still makes it to college somehow.
Oh it is quite clear, being a little tramp is not a hardship. It is really that simple to the self righteous.
If we treat this one fairly, all the other little harlots will think they can have premarital sex too. Better to make her an example. It’s for the best. We wouldn’t want things to get too easy for unwed teenage mothers.
I second what Julie said.
There was a similar article a while back in the Chronicle of Higher Eduation. Essentially, atheletes who are unable to play their sport due to the consequences of other “choices” which physically impair their body — i.e., breaking their leg skiing — qualify for red shirt status, where they’re able to retain their athletic scholarships and their place on the team even though they can’t play. Pregnant athletes often don’t qualify. It’s complete bullshit.
There is actually a new documentary that tells Darnelia’s story, called Heart of the Game. She was allowed to return to school, but the basketball league said that she was not eligible to play basketball because fifth year seniors couldn’t play unless they could prove a hardship. Now, her team was on track to win the championships that year, so if Darnelia played anyway they would forfeit the season. The league refused to call her pregnancy a hardship, placing a de facto moral judgement on Darnelia & sending the message that she should’ve had an abortion if she wanted to be a basketball star.
The team, on the other hand, said that Darnelia was on the team, no matter what the league said, and she played the whole season – even though doing so jeopardized all of their chances to win a championship. In the championship game, Coach Bill Resler played every single one of the players on the team, even the frosh – he said that they all deserved to play in a championship game because of the stand they took for Darnelia. (I’m getting choked up as I write this – it’s such an amazing story). They won the championships and a few weeks later the league quietly retracted Darnelia’s disbarment, and the championship stands.
Oh, and just one more clarification – it wasn’t that she wanted to play while pregnant. She’d already had her baby & was trying to prove that the time she lost from classes to give birth & take care of the child as an infant was sufficient hardship to warrant a fifth year. I think the rule must have been in place to prevent schools from keeping extremely gifted athletes around for a fifth year in order to win championships, and was abused to make a moral judgement on a young woman who was trying to make her life work.
It really was a ridiculous situation.
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Posted by Jill @ 1:50 am
I figured that Piny’s post on athletes being punished for pregnancy could be an issue th [...]