Female Referee not worthy of boys game

Orleander

OH JOY!!!!
Valued Senior Member
:mad: Kudos to the other refs.


KANSAS CITY, Mo — Kansas activities officials are investigating a religious school's refusal to let a female referee call a boys' high school basketball game.

The Kansas State High School Activities Association said referees reported that Michelle Campbell was preparing to officiate at St. Mary's Academy near Topeka on Feb. 2 when a school official insisted that Campbell could not call the game.

The reason given, according to the referees: Campbell, as a woman, could not be put in a position of authority over boys because of the academy's beliefs.
Campbell then walked off the court along with Darin Putthoff, the referee who was to work the game with her.

"I said, 'If Michelle has to leave, then I'm leaving with her,"' Putthoff said Wednesday. "I was disappointed that it happened to Michelle. I've never heard of anything like that."

Fred Shockey, who was getting ready to leave the gym after officiating two junior high games, said he was told there had been an emergency and was asked to stay and officiate two more games.

"When I found out what the emergency was, I said there was no way I was going to work those games," said Shockey, who spent 12 years in the Army and became a ref about three years ago. "I have been led by some of the finest women this nation has to offer, and there was no way I was going to go along with that."

Shockey noted that referees normally don't work Saturday games, but he agreed to officiate because his daughter's basketball game slated for that day was canceled.

The Activities Association said it is considering whether to take action against the private religious school. St. Mary's Academy, about 25 miles northwest of Topeka, is owned and operated by the Society of St. Pius X, which follows older Roman Catholic laws. The society's world leader, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated by Pope John Paul II in the late 1980s.....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330642,00.html
 
I have been a basketball referee for several years, it is a great avocation, paid to exercise with the best seat in the house. I have referee'd at many religious schools and as yet no one has ever asked me if I was an atheist. In Kansas City, it appears that being a woman is worse.
 
that's a damn good point. They don't ask the religious convictions of a ref, but being a female ref is somehow un-biblical.

I would love to know the parent's and kid's reactions to all that.
 
that's a damn good point. They don't ask the religious convictions of a ref, but being a female ref is somehow un-biblical.

I would love to know the parent's and kid's reactions to all that.

I don't know how I would personally react to refusal of my services based on religious grounds.

I'm glad you brought that article to my attention. I am going to bring it to our district executive. I think we as a group of referees should have a policy in place in case we are confronted with religious or gender discrimination. Thanks.
 
If faced with the same situation, would you have refused to sub for her and ref as well?

Depends if I knew why. Sickness and injury amongst other reasons but there is no way in hell that I would have substituted for her once appraised of the situation. If I didn't know and then found out why during the game, I would have walked away, no question.
 
I don't see what the big deal is. If they don't want female refs, who cares? If none of the other refs will work for them, the school will either have to change their policy or get fathers from the school to officiate.

I'm not saying that I agree that females shouldn't be refs, I just don't see why we should be up in arms over the beliefs of the members of a certain church. So long as they don't start commiting acts of terrorism, let them live their lives the way they want to.
 
I don't see what the big deal is. If they don't want female refs, who cares? If none of the other refs will work for them, the school will either have to change their policy or get fathers from the school to officiate.

I'm not saying that I agree that females shouldn't be refs, I just don't see why we should be up in arms over the beliefs of the members of a certain church. So long as they don't start commiting acts of terrorism, let them live their lives the way they want to.

The issue is that a KSHSAA member asked the KSHSAA to discriminate against its employees based on sex (in other words they were asked to break the law). My guess is the school will simply be banned from competing with KSHSAA members.
 
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