H.E.B. district settles Title IX lawsuit

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
July 29, 1998

H.E.B. district settles Title IX lawsuit

Trustees agree to provide equal opportunities for girls and boys and to add female athletic coordinators.

By J. Douglas Foster, Star Telegram Staff Writer

BEDFORD - Hurst-Euless-Bedford for school trustees voted unanimously last night to approve a settlement concerning a Title IX lawsuit filed by eight female students in April.

The students filed the lawsuit claiming discrimination, stating that the district had not met federal requirements to provide equal facilities, equipment, supplies and coaching staffs for girls and boys.

The district addressed the lawsuit in a 12-page settlement agreement with the group, which includes three highlights. The first was a three-year timetable for creating equal sports facilities and opportunities for boys and girls. The agreement also called for the creation of female athletic coordinators at the district's two high schools. L.D. Bell and Trinity, and for the eight girls involved in the lawsuit to remain anonymous.

Sarah Donch, attorney for the district, said the agreement solidified a plan that the district had put in motion more than 10 months before the lawsuit filed. The district published a compliance plan in June 1997 that Donch said had addressed the lawsuit's demands.

"The timetables [in the lawsuit] match all the timetables we had already planned on," Donch said. "This is something the district already had underway. All this does is make things a little more concrete."

Donch said that the female athletic coordinator positions would be created this school year, and that each school principal and district Athletic Director Gary Childress would oversee those appointments.