*862 According to their coach, both of the girls have in general been able to hold their own with the boys in practice sessions and would be allowed to play in interscholastic contests were in not for the W.I.A.A. regulation.
all present or future junior and senior high school girls in this state who either now or in the future shall desire to participate in interscholastic contact football on the boys' teams . . .
With all of the foregoing considerations in mind, we hold that the classification based upon sex, contained in RCW 50.20.030, is inherently suspect and therefore must be subject to strict judicial scrutiny.
**889 It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex.
The legislature hereby finds and declares that practices of discrimination against any of its inhabitants because of . . . sex . . . are a matter of state concern, that such discrimination threatens not only the rights and proper privileges of its inhabitants but menaces the institutions and foundation of a free democratic state.
Equality of rights and responsibility under the law Shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex.
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania because of the sex of the individual.
Girls shall not compete or practice against boys in any athletic contest.
There is no fundamental right to engage in interscholastic sports, but once the state decides to permit such participation, it must do so on a basis which does not discriminate in violation of the constitution.
men generally possess a higher degree of athletic ability in the traditional sports offered by most schools and that because of this, girls are given greater opportunities for participation if they compete exclusively with members of their own sex.
This attempted justification can obviously have no validity with respect to those sports for which only one team exists in a school and that team's membership is limited exclusively to boys. Presently a girl who wants to compete interscholastically in that sport is given absolutely no opportunity to do so under the challenged By-Law. Although she might be sufficiently skilled to earn a position on the team, she is presently denied that position solely because of her sex. Moreover, even where separate teams are offered for boys and girls in the same sport, the most talented girls still may be denied the right to play at that level of competition which their ability might otherwise permit them. For a girl in that position, who has been relegated to the ‘girls' team’, solely because of her sex, ‘equality under the law’ has been denied.
The classification in the WIAA regulation is not based upon sex Per se but upon the nature of the game of football and the very real reasons (stated in finding of fact 6) why most girls should not play the game against boys.
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