Phoenixville family files Title IX complaint against school district, disparities between boys’ and girls’ teams
When Kenzie Padilla’s cross-country team won the Pioneer Athletic Conference championship in 2021 — the first time in the Phoenixville Area School District’s history — she and the other girls on the team received commemorative T-shirts. The following school year, the Phoenixville boys’ baseball team also won the conference championship. Their reward, Padilla noticed, was more significant: championship rings, jackets, a ceremony marking the achievement.
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Family files federal complaint alleging girls don't get equal treatment in local school district
As a high-school senior, Kenzie Padilla competes for the Phoenixville Area School District. It's a district she and her father say doesn't provide equal resources and treatment for girl athletes. "I don't think it's intentional. I think it really is indifference," said Padilla. That indifference, Padilla said, touches multiple areas, including the outdoor athletic facilities that bear the names of former Phoenixville school athletes.
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Family's fight over equality in high school sports gears up in Phoenixville
In Chester County, a battle is brewing in the Phoenixville School District over Title IX. One dad says he tried to work with the administration for more than a year over what he calls the "…unequal treatment" of female athletes. And, he’s taking his fight one step further. "This is the boys' facility, boys dugout, brand-new construction. You’ve got a protective fence. Girls, it's mud-ridden. There’s no fence," Mike Padilla explained.
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Phoenixville family files Title IX complaint over school district's treatment of girls' sports
A family in the Phoenixville Area School District has filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights, claiming the school is violating Title IX by not properly funding or supporting girls’ sports. Mike Padilla says the goal is equality. “This is not about taking away from the boys. Right? This is about raising the ships for the girls,” he said. “The future state that we want to get to is raising the girls up to the boys, and maybe raising both of them even higher.”
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Phoenixville District Hit With Federal Civil Rights Complaint
A family has filed a complaint with the federal Department of Education accusing the Phoenixville Area School District of violating Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Mike Padilla, and his daughter, Kenzie, accused the district of investing more money and recognition for boys’ sports than girls’ sports. Kenzie Padilla, 18, a senior at a charter school, said that in 2021 when her Phoenixville cross country team won the Pioneer League championship, the team received commemorative T-shirts. In comparison, she said, in 2022 the boy's baseball team won a conference championship, and the team received championship rings, jackets, and a ceremony.
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Phoenixville Student Athlete Calls For Gender Equality In Sports
A Phoenixville student athlete asked Phoenixville Area School District administrators to survey student-athletes and their parents regarding inequities that they may have experienced between male and female athletes. Kenzie Padilla spoke out at a Jan. 8 school board meeting after she and her father, Mike, filed a complaint federal Department of Education accusing the Phoenixville Area School District of violating Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.
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Female Athlete and Parents File Title IX Complaint Against Phoenixville (PA) Area School District
For administrators in the Phoenixville (PA) Area School District (PASD), the year 2023 ended with a U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) complaint filed by a high school female athlete and her parents.  One of the questions raised in this case is whether the PASD has failed in providing gender equitable opportunities and treatment to girls participating in varsity sports. Another is whether PASD violated the Pennsylvania Disclosure of Interscholastic Athletics Opportunities Act that calls for schools to report participation opportunities and information in the form of expenditures and contributions.
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