The Sioux Falls School District is arguing that a South Dakota court erroneously applied Title IX law when it found the district wasn’t compliant with Title IX’s effective accommodation requirement, according to an appellant reply brief filed in appeals court Thursday afternoon.
The district’s brief is in reply to the amicus brief filed by five civil rights groups in support of gymnasts who sued the district last year for cutting their sport.
While the gymnastics season has continued this school year because of a preliminary injunction from a South Dakota judge, the district is waiting for a ruling after seeking to appeal that decision in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Title IX requires educational institutions provide equal athletic opportunities for students but does not require equal participation among students, the district argues. It also doesn’t require an institution “pour ever-increasing sums into its athletics programs in hopes of achieving equal participation between the sexes,” the district argued.