In today's world, women serve alongside men in the military, they are elected to Congress and it will probably not be long until a woman is president. But for one private middle school, none of that matters.
A Butts County family is outraged by their private school's decision to prevent their daughter from playing on the school's football team, condemning the policy as backwards and discriminatory.
Maddy Paige was the starting defensive end for the Strong Rock Christian School when she was in the sixth grade.
The 11 year old said the school recently informed her parents that she would not be allowed to try out for the football team next season.
"It's like taking my dream and throwing it in the trash," Maddy said.
Athletic Director Phil Roberts e-mailed 11Alive News a statement saying, "Our official policy is that middle school girls play girl sports and middle school boys play boy sports."
That's a dumb policy. Are they worried that boys touching, shoving or tacking girls would somehow stimulate their oversexed imaginations and they'd do something awful to ease the tension in the boys' bathroom? The idea of shoving kids into pigeonholes based on gender is something I thought we abandoned years ago, but for this school it seems to be the first course of Stupid of the Day.
Because this is a private school and a religious one at that, it's unlikely there is much parents can do to change their policies other than what they are doing -- shaming them in public. Perhaps they should consider a public school where these problems seem to get sorted out more easily?
I have a suggestion for Georgia, too. Quit sending public money to private schools that discriminate against girls who want to play football.
