A former coach and several student-athletes from Cleveland (Ore.) High School have filed a Title IX lawsuit alleging unequal treatment of the girls’ wrestling team.
According to Oregon Live, former coach Kiera Gabaldon and five girls claim the high school and Portland Public Schools “violated Title IX by not giving the Cleveland girls wrestling team equal opportunities as the boys.”
The lawsuit alleges that the girls were barred from practicing in the gymnasium, instead being relegated to the cafeteria, and that competitions were regularly scheduled for the boys’ team that did not include the girls’ team. Female student-athletes reported being made to feel uncomfortable around the head coach, Rustin Marchello, when he “frequently made gender-based comments and ‘leers’.”
The lawsuit also describes one incident that occurred while both the girls’ and boys’ wrestling teams were travelling for a competition, in which Marchello entered the hotel’s pool “wearing a swimsuit with no shirt.” He then showed the student-athletes his tattoo depicting a rooster and “asked the wrestlers if they wanted to see his cock.”
On top of the unequal and inappropriate treatment by Marchello, Gabaldon claims she lost her position as the girls’ wrestling coach after voicing concerns to the school and Marchello. As a part of the lawsuit, Gabaldon is seeking to be reinstated as the head girls’ wrestling coach and advocating that Marchello be terminated.
Complicating the dynamic between the girls’ and boys’ wrestling teams is that girls’ wrestling was only sanctioned as a varsity sport in Oregon in 2023. At Cleveland High School, both the girls and the boys still compete on one co-ed team with very little separation in leadership.
“The reporting structure creates a power imbalance that resulted in the girls’ team being treated as second class citizens,” said the lawsuit.
Said one former student-athlete, “We were expected to function as our own girls team without the resources."
