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Cheerleading no longer<br>sport, now just a club

GCNP — The Grand Canyon School Board unanimously voted last week to change the status of high-school cheerleading from a sport to a club after hearing from athletic director Steve Boynton that the district had a Title IX violation.

Boynton said the school was out of compliance by two activities, which is viewed as a major offense by the national committee that handles Title IX complaints.

In such situations, that committee could shut down all extracurricular activities at the school if a formal complaint was ever filed, Boynton said.

With the school board’s action, Grand Canyon is now out of compliance by one activity, which stems from the coed status in soccer. In that situation, the school would just be put on probation if a complaint was filed.

With cheerleading eliminated, current boys sports include soccer, basketball, baseball and track. Girls sports are soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball and track.

Board member Chuck Wahler expressed concern during discussion of the matter that the school could be accused of trying to hide a sport by taking such action.

Instead, the board simply dropped cheerleading as a sport and in a separate action, created the “Phantom Spirit Squad” as a club, effective immediately.

Incidentally, Grand Canyon High School does not have a cheer squad anyway this year, which doesn’t matter when counting up the official sports.

“I have a group of five kids who want to go to camp and progress with this activity,” Boynton said. “We have no sponsor, technically, but yes, we have someone who understands the parameters of the activity if approved.”

Lori Lundquist, teacher, was at the meeting to support the action.

There are several changes involved with the sport-to-club transition.

• The cheer adviser is dropped and a club adviser with a smaller stipend is added. Monetary support for clubs is substantially less than for sports, Boynton said. While a first-year cheer coach would make $1,130, the stipend for a club adviser runs about $500, regardless of the duration of the club event.

• The spirit club is not eligible to participate in interscholastic competitions, although they could still go to camps.

• Students will not be charged the $50 athletic fee and instead, would pay only the $1 student fee.

• Uniforms cannot display Grand Canyon High School. They could say Phantoms, however.

• There will be no sideline cheering, but halftime presentations only.

• The spirit squad cannot travel to road games with the team.

• There will be no tryouts for a club activity. Anyone can join.

Title IX federal legislation was enacted in 1972 because of inequities in college and high school sports.

Boynton mentioned another out-of-compliance issue. He said the Arizona Interscholastic Association says no one athlete can compete in two interscholastic sports in the same season.

Thus, there would be a problem during the spring because some athletes compete on both baseball or softball teams along with track, a practice seen at many schools.


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