While the case, Mansourian v. Regents of the University of California, continued long after the graduation of Arezou, Christine and Lauren, the women racked up a series of victories for Title IX culminating in the settlement of the case in February 2012.

In August 2011, the three women scored a major win after a three-week bench trial on the issue of whether UC Davis violated Title IX when they were students. A federal district court in Sacramento found in their favor, ruling that UCD dropped more than 60 intercollegiate sports opportunities for women without replacing them – soundly defeating the University’s claim that it had been expanding opportunities for women to satisfy Title IX.

Other legal milestones included a landmark win at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which rejected the imposition of procedural hurdles to Title IX suits challenging athletic participation inequities and creation of a fund that has awarded over $70,000 in grants to developing female athletes on the UC Davis campus. More information about the legal victories here: http://www.equalrights.org/media/2012/MansourianPressReleaseFinal.pdf

Shortly the lawsuit was filed, women’s wrestling made its Olympic debut in 2004 and today thousands of girls now participate in wrestling across the country.

Christine: “All we ever wanted was to represent UC Davis in sports. We litigated this case for nearly 10 difficult years and missed that opportunity. It should not have to take that long to achieve justice, but we are happy that the lives of many young women attending UC Davis after we did have benefited and will benefit from our fight for Title IX.”

Lauren: “The case paved the way for so many girls who wanted to wrestle or participate in other non-traditional sports. For that, we are proud.”

Arezou: “I have fought for women’s rights in college athletics for the past 10 years and the change it has brought for the future of women athletes has been worth the battle.”

“Without NBC’s investigation into many Title IX issues and concerns how would we know about half of what’s going on in bay area schools?” Noreen Farrell, with Equal Rights Advocates told the Investigative Unit.

ERA has also filed a request for information from Evergreen, asking for proof it’s following Title IX. She is still waiting for answers.

“What I would advise a school district that has faced these horrible allegations is that they should be upfront doing everything to make sure students feel safe, parents feel confident and that members of the public feel confident,” Farrell said.

“For educators to stick their heads in the sand about sexual abuse of minors and the application of Title IX is a real problem.”

“Picking up on a recent investigative report by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit, the nonprofit Equal Rights Advocates (ERA) is requesting that 100 Bay Area schools offer evidence of compliance with Title IX, the federal law that makes it illegal for any educational outlet receiving federal funding to discriminate on the basis of gender. . .ERA executive director Noreen Farrell says that is “troubling that 40 years after [Title IX’s] passage, we are still seeing these kinds of problems” and that the failure of some schools to live up to Title IX’s mandates “really sends this message to girls that…protecting you from sexual harassment isn’t important enough to us.”

Full article is here.

The action follows on the heels of a troubling report by the investigative unit of NBC Bay Area on October 30, 2012, which revealed widespread ignorance of and non-compliance with basic requirements of Title IX among 200 Bay Area schools, including its requirement that schools designate a “Title IX coordinator” to receive and investigate and act upon sex discrimination and harassment complaints. The investigation reveals that principals at some Bay Area schools were unaware of Title IX and could not identify the school’s Title IX coordinator or if the school even had one. See the complete NBC Bay Area video report: “Bay Area Schools Ignoring Title IX?”

Equal Rights Advocates Executive Director Noreen Farrell commented: “Ignorance of Title IX’s basic requirements by school leaders forty years after its passage is shameful and it is hurting girls. Equal Rights Advocates hears from students and parents across California and the country who don’t know their rights, and have no idea where to turn when they face sexual harassment or other discriminatory treatment at school.”

In response to the disturbing results of the NBC investigation, Equal Rights Advocates is filing formal Public Records Act requests with over 100 school districts in the Bay Area requesting documents that evidence or describe their efforts to comply with Title IX, including the identity and contact information for their Title IX coordinators, any written policies and procedures relating to compliance with Title IX, documents relating to Title IX training programs, and the districts’ responses to any Title IX complaints that have been filed over the last three years (redacting any personal information to protect the privacy of those who are involved.)

“Our goal in collecting this information will be to identify gaps in Title IX compliance and to encourage San Francisco Bay Area school district officials to take immediate steps to bring their districts into compliance,” said Farrell. ERA Legal Director Jennifer Reisch added: “ERA intends to enforce Title IX. Millions of girls depend on it.”

About ERA: Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), founded in 1974, is a national civil rights organization dedicated to protecting and expanding economic and educational access and opportunities for women and girls. Through its campaign approach—incorporating public education, legislative advocacy, and litigation—ERA seeks to assist women and girls throughout a life-long continuum: ensuring equality in their educational experience, combating sex discrimination in the workforce, and advocating for workplaces hospitable to working families. To learn more about ERA’s work, visit www.equalrights.org.

Excerpt below:

“The national nonprofit Equal Rights Advocates is demanding answers from Bay Area schools after the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit  exposed that some were not complying with Title IX.

To view original report, click here.

The group is asking 100 Bay Area schools to provide proof of compliance with the federal law that is set up to protect students from sexual harassment and abuse.

A lesser known part of Title IX requires schools to have a system in place to handle sexual harassment and abuse complaints. It also mandates schools designate a Title IX coordinator and publish this individual’s contact information.

ERA is asking for proof of a coordinator and procedures to file complaints that are published.

“We are very very focused on Title IX and why its important and it’s troubling that 40 years after it’s passage we are still seeing these kinds of problems,” Noreen Farrell, ERA’s Executive Director, said.

The damages phase of the trial on the Title IX claim was scheduled to start on March 5, 2012. The parties chose instead to resolve all remaining issues, including any possible appeals, with payment by the University of $1,350,000 to plaintiffs’ counsel for attorneys’ fees and costs incurred during the lengthy case.

“This settlement is the final chapter in a precedent setting Title IX case brought by three brave young women who were denied the opportunity to play college sports, but through their determination and fighting spirit paved the way for the women who are playing sports at the University of California and other institutions today,” stated Plaintiffs’ counsel Noreen Farrell of Equal Rights Advocates. Plaintiffs were also represented by the Sturdevant Law Firm, Equity Legal, and Duckworth Peters Lebowitz Olivier LLP, with support from the American Association of University Women. “We are saddened that the University chose to spend millions to defend and settle this case rather than give our clients a chance to wrestle. But this case ensures that UC Davis will provide equal athletic opportunities in intercollegiate sports as Title IX requires,” added Jim Sturdevant.

Arezou Mansourian, Christine Ng and Lauren Mancuso were dedicated wrestlers and still students when they filed suit in 2003 demanding that UC Davis provide female students an equal opportunity to play intercollegiate varsity sports. All three were pioneers in a male-dominated sport. Mansourian placed at North Coast sectionals in high school. Ng was a high school team captain. Mancuso was a nationally ranked high school champion. Each was recruited to come to wrestle at Davis but then cut from the program after the University refused to continue the contract of a supportive coach.

As noted by Mansourian: “I have fought for women’s rights in college athletics for the past 10 years and the change it has brought for the future of women athletes has been worth the battle.” While the case continued long after the graduation of these Plaintiffs, they racked up a series of victories for Title IX, including:

Landmark Ninth Circuit Win Removes Hurdles To Title IX Suits

In May 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal weighed in on the Mansourian case on an appeal from an order granting summary judgment in the case on the Title IX claim on the grounds that the Plaintiffs had not provided UC Davis of sufficient notice of the precise nature of their claims before filing a suit for damages. In strongly worded decision that set important guidance for Title IX claims across the country, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court, holding that students need not provide a school “notice” of its own institutional decision to provide female students fewer opportunities to play sports. Instead, as the Court found: “[Title IX] requires continuous progress toward the mandate of gender equality that Title IX has imposed on funding recipients for the past thirty years.”

Plaintiffs’ counsel Kristen Galles from Equity Legal, a Title IX expert who has litigated many Title IX cases, emphasized the important precedent also set by the Ninth Circuit on the merits of a defense raised by the University in this case and by many universities across the country: “The Ninth Circuit opinion in this case emphasized that a school must have both a history and continuing practice of expanding opportunities for women. They can’t just wait and let decades of unmet interest build up until someone files a legal complaint. They have affirmative, independent obligations to expand opportunities. Schools have had 40 years to expand their women’s programs to catch up with the already existing men’s programs. Unfortunately, many schools just haven’t done it. Hopefully, the decision in this case will wake schools up to their obligations.”

Trial Victory For Plaintiffs Finding Title IX Violation By University

In August 2010, Plaintiffs scored another win after a three-week bench trial on the issue of whether UC Davis violated Title IX when Plaintiffs were students. A federal district court in Sacramento found in Plaintiffs’ favor on the claim, ruling that the University dropped more than 60 sports opportunities for women without replacing them – soundly defeating the University’s claim that it had been expanding opportunities for women to satisfy Title IX.

Taking stock of the settlement announcement, Plaintiff Christine Ng stated: “All we ever wanted was to represent UC Davis in sports. We litigated this case for nearly ten difficult years and missed that opportunity. It should not have to take that long to achieve justice, but we are happy that the lives of many young women attending UC Davis after we did have benefited and will benefit from our fight for Title IX.”

Women’s wrestling also scored a win from the case. Plaintiff Lauren Mancuso stated: “The case paved the way for so many girls who wanted to wrestle or participate in other non-traditional sports. For that, we are proud.” Shortly after Plaintiffs filed suit, women’s wrestling made its Olympic debut in 2004 and today thousands of girls now participate in wrestling across the country.

Injunctive Relief Resulting in Much Improved Gender Parity in UC Davis Athletics and WISE Fund Support of UC Davis Female Athletes

The Mansourian suit led to the filing of a related suit on behalf of a class of current female students at UC Davis, Brust v. Regents, which resulted in a settlement in 2008 that required UC Davis to improve gender parity in its athletic participation ratios. Monetary proceeds from the settlement were used to create a fund to help developing female athletes at UC Davis. In the past two years, the Women In Sports Equity (WISE) has awarded over $70,000 in grants to female athletes at Davis.

WISE Fund recipient and Co-President of UC Davis’s Lacrosse Club Jessica Dresser hailed the fund: “The WISE fund allows for women who may not have the financial means to play collegiate sports to do so. By eliminating barriers to skilled competition such as lack of funding to travel or even being able to afford to participate, more women have the opportunity to learn and further the growth of the sport.”

For more information about the case, see www.equalrights.org.

About ERA

Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), founded in 1974, is a national civil rights organization dedicated to protecting and expanding economic and educational access and opportunities for women and girls. Through its campaign approach—incorporating public education, legislative advocacy, and litigation—ERA assists women and girls throughout a life-long continuum: ensuring equality in their educational experience, combating sex discrimination in the workforce, and advocating for workplaces hospitable to working families. To learn more about ERA’s work, visit www.equalrights.org.

The WISE Fund was borne out of Brust v. Regents of the University of California, a class action suit brought by women club athletes against UC Davis that alleged that women were getting too few intercollegiate athletic opportunities. “We are very excited that this key term of our Title IX suit continues to benefit women athletes at Davis,” stated Noreen Farrell, Managing Attorney at Equal Rights Advocates. ERA served as co-counsel for the athletes, along with the Sturdevant Law Firm and Equity Legal.

The agreed-upon Brust settlement also sets out a 10-year plan for UC Davis to reach specific proportions of male and female athletes by the 2019-20 school year. The university will either add women’s intercollegiate teams or will take other measures to ensure equal accommodation of student interest in varsity sports. UC Davis has also agreed to contribute $110,000 to a fund for the development of club sports, which the plaintiffs will distribute consistent with the purposes of the lawsuit.

The suit, Brust v. Regents of the University of California, was filed as a companion class action case to a still pending Title IX suit filed by women wrestlers in 2003, who challenge discrimination they faced at Davis arising from their removal from the varsity wrestling program. The wrestler case, Mansourian v. Regents of the University of California, proceeds to trial starting Monday at a federal court in Sacramento. ERA, the Sturdevant Law Firm, Equity Legal, and the law firm of Duckworth, Peters, Lebowitz Olivier LLP also represent plaintiffs in the Mansourian case.

The WISE Fund, administered by the Women’s Foundation of California, awarded several grants for team-related expenses to club sport teams for the 2010-2011 school year to support development of women athletes. The recipients ranged from women’s rugby to women’s field hockey club teams.

The fund was lauded by UC Davis club lacrosse team members Miriam Kolni and Alexandra Pene. “The WISE Fund provided us with the funds to travel to Georgia and to play against higher ranking teams that we would otherwise have been unable to play,” said Alexandra Pene, a junior and lacrosse club team member. “Playing higher ranking teams, increased our ranking, which allowed us to become a leading contender at the top in the nation.”

“Most of the time you see men lacrosse teams playing on ESPN, so that is what the public sees,” said Pene. “But I think more and more girls are playing sports and it’s just as important to have those opportunities available to them as it would be for boys.”

Having the support also freed up students’ time to focus on academics “instead of stressing out over funding for your team’s next competition,” as both Pene and Kolni said.

Kelsey Brust, lead plaintiff in the Brust case that led to the establishment of the WISE Fund, stated, “While the WISE Funds will one day be spent, I am proud that our Title IX suit made a difference at Davis and that other women will continue to benefit from it for years to come.”

As noted by ERA’s Noreen Farrell, “Although we have made great progress, our work continues to ensure an equal education for the young men and women who will be our leaders tomorrow.”