Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home Schools Supt. Tom Yahraes is preparing to lodge a formal complaint against a decision by Oregon Department of Education officials requiring the combining of girls and boys into single teams in forestry competitions.
“I have sent an objection to FNRL (Future Natural Resource Leaders), to a board member of the FNRL, the department head at the Oregon Department of Education that oversees the FNRL as well as the Office of Civil Rights at ODE,” Yahraes told The New Era Friday. The FNRL is a career technical student organization dedicated to the support of high school students interested in pursuing educational and career opportunities in natural resources and forestry.
“They’ve received my objections. We view this as an over-application of Title IX that has had a negative impact on our female forestry students. In fact, it’s my contention that they (ODE and the FNRL) are currently in violation of Title IX.”
The 1972 Education Amendments Title IX says that “no person, on the basis of sex, shall be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
Local school officials learned about the decision to combine the teams on Feb. 14. At that point, Yahraes said, he began talking with FNRL and state education officials to understand the decision.
“We received information about two weeks ago that a student had had an experience of sex discrimination at a Future Natural Resource Leaders (FNRL) competition last fall, when she was participating in a skills competition,” ODE Civil Rights and Title IX Specialist Kate Hildebrandt told The New Era.
Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education says that all students must have “equal access to the full range of CTE programs offered,” and “all recipients are prohibited from excluding any person, on the basis of sex, from access to any CTE classes or from admission to any institution of career and technical education. Furthermore, CTE classes and programs may never be offered on a single-sex basis in coeducational schools.”
FNRL falls under the guidance because its primary purpose is an opportunity for career exploration, career-related skill development and leadership, Hildebrandt said, “and schools may not offer different opportunities or segregate students based on sex.”
ODE officials met with the head of the FNRL on Feb. 12, Hildebrandt said. “He agreed that this was definitely a program with the primary purpose of career exploration, skill-building, and leadership, and that the skill competition elements were designed to foster those experiences.
“On that basis, we determined that the best way to move forward that would align with federal guidance as well as state and federal prohibitions on sex discrimination was to cease sex-gender segregation in these events and instead to move towards skills-based competitions that were separated out by skill or experience level.”
That decision has resulted in a mass exodus of girls from Sweet Home’s competitive forestry team, Yahraes said.
“As a result of a new broader interpretation and application of Title IX pertaining to forestry competitions, a majority of our female student participants want to quit competitions and the co-curricular activity,” he told Hildebrandt in an email obtained under a public records request.
“They feel that in a number of forestry competition events, they have a disadvantage to males because of their size and strength. If they must compete in all events with and against males, there are certain events they are at a disadvantage, such as crosscut, pole climb, choker race, cable splice and ax throw.”
“The unintended consequences of the new Title IX application to forestry competitions, which should include efforts to increase girls’ participation in programs of study and activities “is in violation of the spirit of Title IX itself and its federal regulations under the U.S. Department of Education and Civil Rights,” Yahraes continued. “My desire is to bring this to the attention of ODE, Office of Civil Rights, and the FNRL to seek remedies before seeking formal complaints to the Office of Civil Rights.
“I would also like to suggest that there are 11 Sweet Home female participants affected by this new Title IX application and that as we reach out to the other districts and their forestry clubs, we are learning there are other female participants who feel the same.”
Hildebrandt responded in an email, saying that the change is due to the fact that “the purpose of FNRL, along with all career and technical education programs, is to support students in gaining knowledge and skills for their future careers.”
“When students graduate and go to apply for jobs in forestry and natural resources, they will not be judged differently on their skills or abilities based on their gender, but will be held to the same standard regardless. If participating girls are given a different standard to strive for, then they will not be as adequately prepared for their careers as participating boys.”
“Our intention in supporting this change is not only to be in compliance with federal law but also to allow for the continued participation of students of diverse identities to participate in the program and to explore their career options in forestry and natural resources,” Hildebrandt told The New Era. “As we’ve been hearing from administrators about possible impacts this may have on girls who currently participate int he program, we’ve been working to brainstorm potential solutions to mitigate any possible impacts on students and look forward to continuing to work with students, administrators and FNRL leadership to brainstorm and enact further strategies.
“ODE is committed to supporting FNRL with training and resources to facilitate this process.”
“Part of those efforts, I believe, could be to encourage advisers to emphasize the educational mission of FNRL so that we can help students understand that the purpose of the CDEs is for skills attainment and mastery, not necessarily for competition or to win,” Hildebrandt said in her response to Yahraes.
Hildebrandt told The New Era that any students, parents, teachers and administrators who have comments or questions are welcome to contact the ODE.
Yahraes said he has contacted the school district’s attorney, Nancy Hungerford, for her opinion.
Title IX has an exception for one-sex classes and activities in a few situations, Hungerford told him in an email, which he forwarded to Hildebrandt. Exceptions outlined in administrative rules, 34 CFR 106.3(2), include courses that involve bodily contact or portions of classes dealing with human sexuality.
It also is allowed “if it constitutes remedial or affirmative action,” Hungerford said, “to overcome the effects of conditions (that) resulted in limited participation therein by persons of a particular sex.”
The history of the rule “supports the continuation of a girls-only competition in the three listed activities (ax throwing, log rolling and choker setting) and any others where female high school students would be at a disadvantage because of their physical size and strength,” Hungerford said. “The whole focus of Title IX was to increase girls’ participation in activities and sports. A coed-only competition in these three events would work counter to that purpose.”
Hildebrandt told Yahraes that the ODE looked at those exceptions, but they are limited to nonvocational programs, while the natural resource programs are vocational and excluded from the exception and “may not be offered on a single-sex basis.”
Following the weeklong exchange of emails and phone conversations, Reynold Gardner, education specialist with ODE Ag and Natural Resources, told FNRL members and program advisers that the ripple effects of this decision will “accelerate” the review and update of the official FNRL career development events, noting that some of the events “are going to be tough to justify or connect to industry standards.”
Additionally, he said, referencing these events as “competitions” does not further the educational CTE cause.
“Competitions implies winners and losers,” Gardner said in the email. “CDEs are career development events and as such are used to allow students in a safe space to practice, demonstrate and exhibit industry skills.”
Results of CDEs should only be shared with the FNRL adviser, a licensed teacher, he said. “Continuing to use the language, ‘timber sports and or competitions’ only confuses the individuals who are not part of the FNRL CDE process and makes it tough to explain what a CDE does. Recognizing gold, silver, bronze and top-10 students is acceptable, yet if the entire event is top-10 or failure, we have missed the mark.”
He said this would be addressed further during a conference call with advisers on Feb. 27.
In a Friday email, Yahraes told Hildebrand that he and Hungerford stand by Hungerford’s legal opinion.
He told The New Era that the ODE’s direction “is counterproductive to what we want, more female students to learn about the industry as a career – and that is the intent of Title IX. We could lose the program. Oregon and forestry have a long tradition, and that would be a travesty. Many were not attracted to other extra- or co-curricular programs.”
In natural resources, with competitions, “they found a home,” Yahraes said. The program teaches resilience, teamwork and competitiveness they might not otherwise experience.
“Title IX absolutely has provisions that allow for segregation of the sexes, where girls have been disinterested in participating,” he said, and where physical differences make a difference.
“In preparing a formal objection to go before the Sweet Home School Board to vote on, I’m requesting all information used in making the decision, including any legal opinion by an attorney,” Yahraes said in the Friday email to Hildebrandt. “I am also requesting the same information from FNRL and ODE Department of Ag and Natural resources.
“I also would like to know where or to whom to lodge our formal objection and complaint in each respective area or the proper governing body. I am copying superintendents of Philomath, Scio, and Lincoln County (which also have forestry competition teams). I have made them aware of the situation, and they may wish to join the formal objection.”
He told The New Era he is working with superintendents, advisers and others involved “to unite in a response.”