Phoenix School’s Baseball Team Won’t Play Against Girl, Forfeits Championship

Dean Arrindell — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:56:16 +0000

A Phoenix, AZ Catholic school forfeited a charter school baseball championship because their opponents have a girl on their team. Fifteen year-old Paige Sultzbach plays second base and is the only girl on the Mesa Preparatory Academy’s baseball team. Their would-be opponents in the state championship, Our Lady of Sorrows, declined to play Mesa Prep and forfeited the state championship. They said in a statement:

Our school aims to instill in our boys a profound respect for women and girls. Teaching our boys to treat ladies with deference, we choose not to place them in an athletic competition where proper boundaries can be respected with difficulty.

The school’s so-called “deference” to women sounds like the condescension that says women are inherently delicate and shouldn’t be allowed to do things like play sports. It’s the same attitude that makes it difficult for women to break into traditionally male spheres. It’s same men-only attitude that contributes to the low number of women as Fortune 500 CEO’s and members of Congress.

If Our Lady of Sorrows were indeed instilling in their students “a profound respect for women and girls,” they would view them as equals and play ball.

See Sultzbach’s interview on PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton.

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Phoenix School’s Baseball Team Won’t Play Against Girl, Forfeits Championship