Clarke Central High School girls varsity soccer player Hannah Barnett, a senior, speaks to the Board of Education on Feb. 10. Barnett spoke about the lack of sufficient locker room space for female athletes at CCHS. “It seems like gender equality is not a top priority. Title IX has notified our school of the issue years ago, but administration just decided to call the JV football locker room a women’s locker room, and doesn’t have any further plans of addressing it,” Barnett said. “Female athletes have very limited places to change, and it is a problem.” Photo by Gretchen Hinger
CCHS girls varsity soccer player Hannah Barnett, a senior, spoke at a Board of Education meeting on Feb. 10 to address inequities between the facilities given to male and female athletes.
Below is Hannah Barnett’s speech in its entirety.
Hello. I am Hannah Barnett, a senior student-athlete at Clarke Central High School. I am here today to address a prevalent problem in our high school; the lack of women’s locker rooms.
CCHS has 10 mens and 12 womens varsity sport programs. Even though we have more women’s sports than men’s, our school contains four men’s locker rooms and only one women’s locker room. There are two football locker rooms, one baseball locker room, and one basketball locker room accessible for the boys. However, the girls have access to the one basketball locker room, and now use the JV football locker room as well.
As a student-athlete at CCHS, I have experienced the inequity first hand. For example: to change for soccer practice, our team piles into a five stall bathroom in the new gym. Basketball is still in season at the time, so we have no other place to change. We wait for each other to finish using the stall, or we cram in the small excess space to change for practice.
Another example: Weight training class consists of both genders. While there is an enormous football locker room used for the boys to change, there is no locker room for the girls. The closest girls locker room is across campus in the new gym. That said, female students have to request a key from a coach to unlock the coaches locker room, which is a one stall bathroom with a small lounge space. So, once it IS made accessible, all the girls have to wait in line.
It seems like gender equality is not a top priority.
Other female student-athletes struggle with the same issue. The softball team, for example, is forced to change in the visitors’ football bathroom and store their stuff in a cement shed that leaks. Meanwhile, the baseball team up the hill has a locker room they change in with cubbies designated for them.
The volleyball team changes in the old JV football locker room, and claims it wasn’t getting cleaned regularly, leading to maggots in the toilets. Women’s track has to change in the crowded basketball locker room. The space issue will become more of a problem next year, as the school is adding another woman’s sport: flag football. Where are they going to change?
Some people say the district doesn’t have the money. However, we could have used some of the funds from the school’s renovation five years ago, or some of the funds used to install the turf field and away-team field house.
It seems like gender equality is not a top priority.
Title IX has notified our school of the issue years ago, but administration just decided to call the JV football locker room a women’s locker room, and doesn’t have any further plans of addressing it. Female athletes have very limited places to change, and it is a problem.
We ask that the district plan to add women’s locker rooms into our school. This is not a funds issue, this is an equity issue. Thank you.
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*In Barnett’s speech, she indicates that the CCHS volleyball team changes in the JV football locker room, however, it should be the varsity girls basketball locker room. Read more about this issue in the article Gaps between Glads by Sports Editor Gretchen Hinger and Social Media Coordinator Janie Ripps from Issue 1 of the ODYSSEY Newsmagazine. Read the full issue here.
