Prince George's to Comply Fully With Title IX

The Prince George's County school board last night voted to approve an agreement with the National Women's Law Center to place all the county's middle and high school athletic programs in full compliance with Title IX, the federal law mandating gender equity at federally funded institutions.

The agreement will require the county to improve fields and locker rooms, allocate equal funding for boys and girls commensurate to those participating, and provide the same quality of uniforms, publicity, training, medical services and transportation for all participants.

"We're going to be a prototype for other jurisdictions in the U.S. to meet Title IX compliance," said Beatrice P. Tignor, the chairman of the school board.

"It's really surprising that [34] years after Title IX, there are still so many problems," said Neena Chaudhry, senior counsel for the NWLC, who has been the lead attorney on the case. "We're very pleased with the agreement with Prince George's County."

A formal announcement will come this morning at a news conference in the gymnasium at Wise High School.

The case was brought forth by Jack Mowatt, commissioner of the D.C. Amateur Softball Association, who umpired high school games in the county. He noticed a sharp difference in the county schools' softball fields compared with the baseball fields.

"Half the girls had no bench to sit on," Mowatt said. "They had no fences in front of the benches. There were pipes sticking out of the ground."

Before the start of softball practice next spring, according to the agreement, the county will make improvements, including the installation of new backstops or replacement of dilapidated ones, the repair of holes or depressions in fields and the installation of safety capping on all fences.

Other improvements include covered dugouts with benches, equipment storage sheds, bleachers, scoreboards and batting cages comparable to the ones on baseball fields. They will be installed by the start of the 2008 season.

DeMatha's Tate Picks GMU

DeMatha guard Isaiah Tate, a backup on last season's team that went 34-1 and finished co-No. 1 in the area, last night committed to play basketball for George Mason, Stags Coach Mike Jones said.

Tate, a 6-foot-3 senior, averaged 3.4 points last season but is expected to fill a much larger role this season. He also seriously considered Delaware, Fordham and Richmond before becoming the latest player from a Maryland high school to commit to George Mason. The Patriots' run to last season's Final Four was led by a starting five of former Maryland players.

George Mason "had been showing interest the longest; they were the first one to step to the plate with an offer," Jones said.