7th Grade Girl Expelled from School After Suing to Play on the Boys’ Basketball Team

Pinterest Sydney Phillips Two New Jersey Catholic school students were expelled after their family sued the school for not allowing their 13-year-old daughter play on the boys’ basketball team. Scott Phillips found out in October that his daughters’ school, St. Teresa’s in Kenilworth, New Jersey, was shutting down the girls’ basketball team. “When we heard that there was no varsity team, which covers 7th and 8th grade, my wife simply said, ‘Let’s just let her play with the 7th and 8th grade boys. Let’s move her over,’ ” Phillips tells PEOPLE. But when he approached the school’s athletic director, the idea was met with resistance. “Instead of saying, ‘Let’s talk about it,’ or ‘Let’s look into it,’ it was a resounding ‘No’ from the athletic director,” says Phillips, 63, a retired police officer. “It was a simple request: just move a girl over to the boys’ league. It’s a no tryout league. There was nothing about if she can keep up with the boys. And as it happens, Sydney [my older daughter] is a very, very good athlete, and her moving to the boys’ team would only help them.” Scott asked if the school had a rule in writing stating that girls were not allowed to play on boys’ teams, which he says they couldn’t produce. “They said that boys only play with boys, and girls only play with girls,” he says. Scott and his wife Theresa then went up the chain of command, and set up a meeting with the Newark Archdiocese, who runs the school. They were immediately told that Sydney wouldn’t be allowed to play with the boys, prompting the Phillips to take legal action. (The Newark Archdiocese has not responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment.) “We just want Sydney to be able to play basketball at St. Teresa’s,” Scott says. “She plays for a very good travel team and another church for our hometown. It’s not just that she wanted to play basketball — she wanted to play it for her school. She’s gone to that school since pre-K, so it’s the only school she’s ever known.” “Sydney can’t understand what the big deal is,” he continues. “She’s not taking anybody’s spot, she’s not competing with anybody. The only people who are going to get hurt are some boys’ egos.” Meanwhile, the New York Liberty WNBA team heard about Sydney’s story and invited her to play with them Wednesday night. “It was the experience of a lifetime for Sydney,” Scott says. “She was absolutely thrilled. She met Brittany Boyd, Sugar Rodgers and Teresa Weatherspoon, and they put her through a nice half-hour practice of drills and shooting and running around, and they gave Sydney an honorary uniform with her name on it. It was just grand.” After meeting with Sydney, Weatherspoon is speaking out in support of Sydney’s desire to play on her school’s boys’ team. “This was a no-brainer — it’s a young girl who wants to play the game of basketball, and all she […]

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