A Cuyama Valley High School football player has claimed in a federal lawsuit that a Santa Maria Christian school refused to schedule games with the team because of her gender.
The lawsuit filed in federal court by Sonya Herrera, on behalf of her daughter, a player identified as E.H., named Valley Christian Academy, First Baptist Church, Joel Mikkelson, VCA superintendent and the church’s lead pastor, and several unnamed defendants.
E.H. is one of two wide receivers on the varsity team for Cuyama Valley High School, which competes in eight-man football.
“This action arises out of the abhorrent, intentional, and gross discrimination against Plaintiff, a female student athlete enrolled at Cuyama Valley High School (Cuyama Valley), by Defendants antiquated, misogynistic ideals and policies through which Defendants sought to minimize Plaintiff’s athletic ability and deprive her of athletic opportunities strictly due to her gender,” the lawsuit states.
The issue stemmed from a game in March at the Santa Maria Valley school’s campus where E.H. played the entire game as wide receiver without issue.
In addition to gawking at the plaintiff in disgust “as if she were some kind of spectacle” after she removed her helmet, VCA changed its football schedule because of Cuyama’s female player.
“Incredibly, Defendants then sought to justify their blatant discrimination by quoting their Biblical principals to protect women, which, ironically, are the same Biblical principals that call for equality amongst all individuals,” the lawsuit states. “In reality, Defendants were merely undermining Plaintiff’s athletic ability and stating that she was not capable of playing at a man’s level, thereby painting Plaintiff as a weak, inadequate, and entirely helpless creature strictly because of her gender, and publicly humiliated her in the process.”
In a letter to Superintendent Alfonso Gamino of the Cuyama Valley Unified School District, VCA’s Mikkelson said the student handbook relies on the Bible, contending it “gives instruction as to how men are to treat women.”
“In our handbook, one of our clearly defined boundaries is, ‘There is to be no physical contact between boys and girls at Valley Christian Academy.’”
He added that they train their boys to “rigorously to admire and value women as precious and worthy of respect.”
“Football is a violent game, and we understand the value of such in training our young men within the boundaries of an organized sport,” Mikkelson wrote. “However, because of the nature of its contact, we will not play a team that has a female as part of its football team.”
There’s at least one player with the last name Mikkelson on the VCA Lions team, according to a roster on MaxPreps.
Unnamed high school sports officials reportedly informed VCA representatives that refusing to play a game with Cuyama Valley because of one player’s gender violated state and federal laws, CIF rules and other regulations governing interscholastic athletic participation, according to the lawsuit.
Specifically, the lawsuit lists five claims, including violation of Title IX for sex discrimination and/or hostile environment, 14th Amendment violation of the equal protection rights, violation of the California Education Code and violation of the Civil Rights Act along with intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The lawsuit, filed by the New York firm of Nesenhoff & Miltenberg LLP plus Ventura-based Brian Hefelfinger of Palay Hefelfinger, seeks damages including for emotional and psychological harm, loss of educational opportunities and/or career opportunities, harm to reputation, past and future economic losses, and loss of future career prospects along with attorney fees and court costs.
They also seeking injunctive relief to prohibit the implementation and enforcement of the unequal treatment of high school athletes based on gender.
Mikkelson had not seen the lawsuit, he said Tuesday. Once served with a copy of the document, the defendants are expected to file a response to the allegations.
Not named in the lawsuit, Gamino reitererated the district’s support for Title IV and the goal to promote equal opportunity for all athletes.
The girl playing on the team is an exceptional student athlete, he added.
The Bears and Lions are two of the five teams making up the Coast Valley League along with Maricopa, Coast Union and Coastal Christian.
The Cuyama varsity football team is 4-0 in non-league games this season. The VCA Lions are 3-0.
According to an online schedule at MaxPreps, the VCA Lions are scheduled to play the Cuyama Valley Bears on Oct. 16. (A calendar on VCA says it’s Oct. 15, but Mikkelson blamed a clerical error.)
The status of that game remains up in the air, with Mikkelson telling Noozhawk that VCA will abide by the bylaws of the CIF Southern Section and the Coast Valley League.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.