ST. LOUIS – A mother of a soccer player filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of her son after she alleged that her son was not allowed to play on Ladue Horton Watkins High junior varsity team and that the rules for the girls' and boys' varsity vary unfairly.
According to details of the case, the school allows female juniors to continue competing on the junior varsity level, whereas the boys' program prohibits juniors who do not make the varsity cut to play on the junior varsity team.
Peter Vujin, a Miami-based attorney, commented on this situation of alleged gender discrimination and the current climate concerning gender-related issues in today's scene.
"Religion, ethnicity, alienage, age, remain protected categories, so discrimination based on those factors is often prohibited by the courts," Vujin told the St. Louis Record. "Hence, mother of John Doe, the player rejected for the varsity team, correctly alleged that he son is the victim of age and gender discrimination," simply due to differing rules for the girls' and boys' teams.
The school has defended its decision to cut John Doe from the team, explaining that there were eight juniors in total who were cut from the team.
Vujin explained that the judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in this case was likely aware of the current political mood in the country regarding sexual discrimination and has there for denied a preliminary injunction, claiming that the school's policy is not unconstitutional, given the school's desire to help keep the program successful, according to www.kdsk.com.
"This whole situation is completely unacceptable in the 2018 United States, and we all must strive our best to assure our representatives include discrimination based on sex as a protected category because it is irrational and extremely offensive to discriminate against someone based on their sex, especially because our fundamental values," Vujin said. "A long road remains until our nation rises to the laudable level demanded by our Founding Fathers."