The Fresno State University women’s lacrosse team reached a settlement with the school in their Title IX case that began in 2021 and made it all the way to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
According to Courthouse News, the lawsuit was originally filed after Fresno State eliminated the team at the end of the 2020-21 school year, but it denied student-athletes a return to play plan or even access to the locker room to grab their things. The women reported that these were opportunities offered to two men’s teams cut the same year: tennis and wrestling.
While Fresno State blamed pressures from the COVID-19 Pandemic, the women said the decision to cut their team and subsequent treatment violated Title IX.
In the initial filing, the plaintiffs said, “The decision to eliminate the women’s lacrosse team was entirely consistent with Fresno State’s history of sex discrimination in its intercollegiate athletic program, but it came as a surprise to the women on the team and their coaches."
Now no longer students, Fresno State argued that the judge should dismiss the former athlete’s case, but U.S. District Senior Judge Kimberly Mueller responded, “If the court were to dismiss on mootness grounds here, Fresno State would be allowed to continue to harm similarly situated female athletes by eliminating teams or subjecting them to unlawful treatment without facing any possibility of consequences.”
Following her decision, the former student-athletes were certified as a class and allowed to move forward with the lawsuit.
In the end, the claims for effective accommodation and equal treatment were the lynch pins in the women’s lacrosse team’s argument. While they failed to get a judge to grant a stay of the team’s elimination, they successfully settled the case.
The settlement figures have not been made public at this time.
