LOS ANGELES - Almost exactly a year after the ACLU filed a case on behalf of the Montebello Ponytail Girls' Softball Association to fight unequal distribution of playing fields between boys' baseball and girls' softball teams, a Federal Court approved a settlement on April 19, 2001, that provides the Ponytail Girls' Association with equal access. The case, Romero v. Montebello, was filed on April 20, 2000, and the law firm of Arnold & Porter acted as pro bono co-counsel in the case. The parties quickly began to work together toward a resolution of the problem, and the settlement this week solidifies the interim changes put in place shortly after the lawsuit was filed by adopting new permit policy to ensure that public field use will be allocated equitably from here on out.
"We were on third base, and this hit brought us home," said Rocio Cordoba, staff attorney atthe ACLU of Southern California. "Score one for the home team. This is a real victory for young female athletes, their coaches, and their families, who showed that by asserting their rights, they could take on a system of long-standing inequity and replace it with fair play and equal opportunity."
"The City of Montebello is to be commended for its commitment to achieving equity and doing the right thing for girls," said Cordoba. "It saw the needs of the softball players and the constraints they faced under the old system, and worked with the plaintiffs to develop a new model that gives all young people who use the city's sporting facilities full access to the benefits and challenges of athletic participation."
The settlement requires the City of Montebello to develop a new permit policy allocating field time and space strictly according to an athletic group's enrollment numbers, regardless of gender.
This is the second successful settlement of an ACLU of Southern California gender equity lawsuit regarding girls' access to city sporting facilities - a groundbreaking legal strategy that has sparked interest across the country. The first, Baca v. Los Angeles, resulted in a citywide program to increase girls' access to city sporting programs and facilities.
"Community sports programs have always been a key part of children's growth as athletes," said Cordoba, "but cities - until now - haven't been held to a high enough standard in providing those opportunities equally to all children, regardless of their gender."