Catholic School Won't Let Female Refree Officiate
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/highschool/02/13/female.official.ap/index.html
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- 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.
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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.
Gary Musselman, the association's executive director, said the organization will not make a decision until it confirms whether St. Mary's Academy has a policy of not allowing female referees to work boys basketball games.
If that is indeed the school's written policy, Musselman said, the association could decide to remove St. Mary's Academy from the list of approved schools and take away its ability to compete against the association's more than 300 member schools.
St. Mary's Academy officials declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
St. Mary's Academy is among 30 schools on the list that are not full association members but compete against schools that are. Musselman said St. Mary's Academy plays one or two games per season against member schools but has no more scheduled this school year.
He said if removed from the approved list for next school year, St. Mary's Academy still would be able to compete against approved schools that are not members of the association.
Musselman said the association hopes to resolve the matter sometime this week. He said he sent a letter to the school's principal, Vicente A. Griego, the day of the incident but has not heard back from him.
Putthoff and other supporters of Campbell said they believe state activities officials will handle the situation properly.
Campbell did not return phone calls seeking comment Wednesday.
However, she told The Kansas City Star that she was "dumbfounded" by the incident but that she is not angry at the school. She said she does not want the situation to go any further than it already has.
"This issue was going to come up eventually," said Campbell, 49, a retired Albuquerque, N.M., police officer who now lives in Ozawkie, Kan. "I just happened to be the person who was there this time.
"It's kind of a sticky situation. It needs to be looked at carefully, slowly, with all the facts."
Putthoff said he has called games at St. Mary's Academy off and on for 10 or 12 years, but doubts he will officiate at the school again.
"Out of defense to Michelle, I'm probably going to decline to go back there," he said. "We have to support our fellow officials."
Campbell, one of about five female referees in the Topeka Officials Association, has been officiating games for about two years.
"We don't support any institutions that would discriminate against any of our officials," said Steve Bradley, president of the Topeka group. "We support Michelle 100 percent.
"Michelle works hard. She cares about what she does. She is not a person who's on a crusade. She's a good person. She's a good official. You will not find a person who's more serious about doing a good job than Michelle."
Musselman said this was his first time dealing with a situation in which a school turned away a referee because of gender.
"We view officials not as male or female, Hispanic or African-American or Asian-American. We view officials as officials," Musselman said. "Discrimination against our officials is something we can't be party to."
Still, he said, the association wants to be fair to everyone involved and gather all the information before taking action.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
This is seriously fucked up! To their credit, the male refree working with her walked off and the one they tried to get to replace them refused. This school should be thrown out of the league.
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Jeez...I knew the Catholic Church could be dense, but this...man, there are no words.
I wonder what this wonderful Catholic institution thinks of all those Catholic Religious Sisters who teach...you knew this was coming...male students!
Conor
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"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII
"But it should!"--Me
Women should stick to cooking dinner and making babies. JEEZE! Some people must think we live in the 21rst century.
This gets my WTF award of the day.
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From re-reading it I see it's not actually a "Catholic" school - it follows the same version of Catholicism as Mel Gibson's dad - It said the founder of the sect was actually excommunicated by the previous pope.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
It won't take Benny the Rat too long to being them back to the fold. They're his kind of people.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
JC--
That may actually be harder than you think. The people that MattShizzle is talking about believe that any person who accepts the ideas of the Second Vatican Council is a heretic. As a heretic, such a person literally *cannot* be a legitimate Pope. So, as far as they are concerned, there is, and has been, *no* legitimate Pope since the death of Pope Pius XII. In order for Benedict XVI to lead them back to Rome, he would first have to persuade them that he does *not* accept Vatican II. For all his vices, I think that there is about zero chance of him doing this in any overt way. A few of them here in Kansas have even gone so far as to elect their own Pope (who, officially, is an *antipope.*) His regnal name, I think, is Pius XIII, and he lives in St. Mary's, Kansas, not too far from Wichita. (Kansas has all kinds of interesting characters. Former Senator Dole, for example, is one of the more benign ones.)
Conor
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII
"But it should!"--Me
From their site http://www.sspx.org/
"The Society of St. Pius X professes filial devotion and loyalty to Pope Benedict XVI, the Successor of Saint Peter and the Vicar of Christ.
The priests of the SSPX pray for the intentions of the Holy Father and the welfare of the local Ordinary at every Mass they celebrate."
They've also met with Ratzinger at the Vatican as recently as 2005.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
Ah...apparently there has been some sort of reconciliation between the Vatican and the Priestly Society of St. Pius X. But the folks here in Kansas to whom I refer are the Priestly Society of Pius V. I know, I know...so many Popes Pius, so little time. Suffice to say, they are a different group. (Come to think of it, though, I really don't know what group Mr. Gibson, and/or his father, belong to.) Anyway, thanks for the update.
Conor
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"Faith does not fear reason."--Pope Pius XII (Frustrating, isn't it?)
"But it should!"--Me