Landow v. School Board of Brevard County
United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
132 F. Supp. 2d 958 (2000)
- Written by Steven Pacht, JD
Facts
The School Board of Brevard County, Florida, (board) (defendant) governed Titusville High School and Astronaut High School. The schools fielded baseball teams for boys and softball teams for girls. The baseball teams practiced and played on dedicated fields on campus. The softball teams played off campus in public parks. The boys’ fields featured the correct dimensions for high-school baseball, batting cages, working scoreboards, warm-up areas, concession stands, and press boxes. In addition, the Titusville boys’ field had lights, allowing the boys to practice and play at night. By contrast, the public fields that the girls’ teams used did not have batting cages, the correct dimensions for girls’ softball (e.g., the fences were too far from home plate), scoreboards, concession stands, or press boxes. Moreover, the girls could not practice or play at night. In addition, the dugouts where the Titusville girls played were plagued with debris and occasional sleeping transients; the Titusville girls also had to endure comments of a sexual nature from men in the park. Richard Landow (plaintiff), as the next friend of his daughter Kayla Landow, a Titusville softball player, brought a class action against the board, alleging that the differences between the playing conditions for the boys’ baseball and girls’ softball teams violated, among other things, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. The case was tried by the court without a jury.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Conway, J.)
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