News & Events

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP settled a Title IX claim on behalf of our clients against the Pasadena Unified School District after the District agreed to expand access to athletic opportunities for girls.

The claim was brought on behalf of middle school girls who were denied access to interscholastic sports.  The District’s PasadenaLEARNs program offered athletic opportunities to boys, such as flag football, but girls were not provided with comparable opportunities.  While PasadenaLEARNs is advertised as including a ‘co-ed’ sports league and girls make up 48.9% of the District’s population, only 10% of the LEARNs sports participants were girls at the middle school level.

Now those girls will be able to participate, as the District and the interscholastic sports program it operates added basketball and soccer programs for girls, and may also add girls’ volleyball in the fall.  The settlement was achieved without the need for legal action, following the District’s demonstration of a good-faith effort to rectify unlawful gender-based discrimination and ensure that girls can play sports.

The Simpson Thacher team included Buzz Frahn, Jayma Meyer, Michael Freedman and Lee Brand.