We’ve voiced complaints recently about the apparent lack of consideration in Salem for rural residents and our realities of life.
Most of our protests have been aimed at the legislature and its leaders. But this week we respond to a report from another quarter: the state Department of Education.
Turns out, educational officials are concerned that girls are being unfairly treated in forestry competitions and they’re trying to remedy that, with new rules banning single-sex competition.
For those unfamiliar with forestry as a sport, here’s a little primer.
About half a dozen high schools in western Oregon, including Sweet Home, field forestry competition teams. Students compete in events such as pole climbing, ax throwing, log rolling, various sawing events, choker setting, cable splicing and a variety of technical events such as hose lay (placing fire hoses to fight fires), log scaling and first aid.
More on all that in a moment.
The Department of Education appears to be trying to resolve what it considers a violation of Education Amendments Act Title IX reported by two girls who attend the Sabin-Schellenberg Professional Technical Center in the North Clackamas School District. Sabin has fielded a forestry competition team for years, coached for many of those by Sweet Home High School alum Rob Waibel, now retired.
According to The Compass, a student newspaper published in the North Clackamas district, a female North Clackamas School District forestry contestant complained that, after she entered an event in the boys division, an event volunteer from Sweet Home made a crack about whether it was a “transgender event now” and whether she knew what she was doing. She said she faced additional bullying.
The ODE apparently has concluded that dividing forestry competitions into male and female divisions is a violation of Title IX, which 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.
According to an email from the executive director of Future Natural Resource Leaders, the organization that oversees forestry competitions, forestry differs from regular sports, and as such it may only have events and activities that are open to all.
Clearly, if that student newspaper account is accurate, there was a problem. But the solution the ODE has come up with is nonsensical, to say the least – unless state education officials would rather simply destroy forestry competitions as an activity for high school girls. It really smacks of cultural elitism.
It’s true that forestry isn’t a common sport like, say, football, volleyball, basketball, baseball/softball, track and field, etc., where the real physical differences between males and females are appreciated.
But the notion that forestry differs from other athletics in which local high school athletes compete falls short of reality. Athleticism is an asset in most, if not all, the field events in forestry, as our story on page 1 spells out in more detail.
Are we to assume that most high school girls can climb a 30-foot pole as fast as most boys? Do we expect a pair of girls to have a chance to win a cross-cut saw competition against boys who carry 50 more pounds of muscle?
This is idiocy.
Forestry is a great activity. It appeals to kids who aren’t always drawn to other types of athletics, and although, in today’s world of highly mechanized logging practices, the skills might not carry over quite as much to actual work in the woods, the exposure to the culture and practices of the industry can only be helpful for a young person seeking eventual employment.
And not only is the physical exercise beneficial, as in other sports, but it’s good for kids to be outdoors, learning to use equipment, learning to be safe and work together, etc.
The problem appears to be that those making these decisions are letting legal reasoning trump very basic realities. They’ve decided that, as part of high schools’ career and technical education in forestry, the key distinction for the competition teams is that they are educational programs and not athletic programs.
Meanwhile, the competitors maintain a very clear view of reality. Whatever anyone in Salem thinks, teens realize that biological differences in physical strength between boys and girls are quite real. Most of the girls in these programs are facing a significant disadvantage.
That’s the reason we divide OSAA-administered high school sports. Even in golf, where technique and skill can narrow the gap, girls still play off shorter tees than boys and even those who play with boys teams during the regular season compete solely against girls at districts and state.
In high school swimming the state record for the 100 Freestyle in the division Sweet Home competes in is 50.88 seconds for girls. For boys it’s 45.24. That’s pretty representative of the difference in every event.
Sure, forestry may blur the lines a bit in technical events – in which boys and girls do compete against each other.
Sure, that episode reported by the student newspaper, if true, was ugly and deserves a response – but not this one.
The agency’s edict runs counter to the intent of Title IX, pure and simple. It’s stupid. This move discriminates against every girl who participates in forestry, including those who complained.
Girls will drop out of Sweet Home’s and, likely, every other forestry program in the state. When the state’s top performer in last year’s forestry competition says she’s done, that she’ll move to a sport that she likes a lot less than forestry, that should say something to the powers that be.
We question whether ODE administrators are either cognizant of or have thought this through very thoroughly. It’s never a good idea to set policy based on an attempt to solve a single instance of disfunction.
We’re calling on them to give it some more thought, preferably in a meeting with the actual coaches/teachers who work with these kids every day. They need to talk with kids who aren’t aggrieved, who are having a positive experience in forestry. That’s where balanced reasoning will start.
Lacking that, affected school districts and the Future Natural Resource Leaders should file a Title IX complaint against the ODE for discriminating against female athletes and reducing their opportunities to participate in educational and athletic programs.
Of course, then we’ll be watching this get contested in court.