Corvallis High School

School officials surprised by Title IX complaint

Mid-valley school officials say they were caught unaware this week by media reports that their districts had been named in Title IX sports discrimination complaints.

The complaints, filed in April with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, name close to 100 high schools throughout Oregon, including Lebanon, Sweet Home, Corvallis, Crescent Valley, South Albany and West Albany.

The complaints claim the schools are not providing equal opportunities for female high school students to play sports.

The unnamed complainant asks for compliance investigations at each of the schools.

Albany and Lebanon district officials said they have received no notice from the federal office and weren’t aware of the complaints until reports surfaced in the Oregonian on Monday and Tuesday. The Corvallis and Sweet Home districts could not immediately be reached.

“It was news to us,” Superintendent Maria Delapoer of Albany said.

In Lebanon, information about the complaint has been turned over to the district’s lawyer through the Oregon School Boards Association.

“At this point in time, we’re waiting for something official saying these are the next steps to be taken,” said Ryan Noss, student achievement administrator for the Lebanon Community School District. “So far we have nothing to move forward on.”

Messages left with Office of Civil Rights to discuss the complaints have not been returned. According to other news outlets, the office is reviewing the complaints to see if an investigation is warranted. 

Using 2006 data from the Office of Civil Rights, the complaints compare the number of girls enrolled at each of the high schools with the percentage of athletes who are girls.

At South Albany in 2006, for instance, girls made up 49 percent of the enrollment and 38 percent of the number of athletes. Another 51 female athletes would have made participation equal, according to the complaint.

At West Albany, girls made up 50 percent of the enrollment but only about 41 percent of the athletes. Another 55 female athletes would have indicated proportional athletic opportunities, the complaint states.

The complaints also allege that existing athletic participation figures at the named schools have been “padded,” particularly by cheerleading and dance. OSAA’s website refers to both cheerleading and dance as activities, not sports.

2 Towns hits hard in its Corvallis debut - News - The Daily Barometer

In 1840, William Henry Harrison led a successful presidential campaign that went down in history as the "Log Cabin and Hard Cider" campaign. Harrison enjoyed his hard cider and wasn't ashamed of it.More than 160 years later, hard cider is making a comeback in the mid-Willamette Valley. Local brewers Lee Larsen, Aaron Sarnoff-Wood and David Takush are in the process of reviving and reintroducing hard cider to Oregon with their brewing business, 2 Towns. To clarify, hard cider is not a juice or a beer or a wine. Hard cider is cider. The process of making their hard cider begins with an apple juice blend from Yakima, Wash., which is poured into fermenters along with yeast. After three days, when the yeast is at its peak amount, Oregon meadowfoam honey is added to the liquid, which is then left to ferment for two to three more weeks. The cider is then aged in Oregon oak for up to a month. "We were going to start the business in my basement, but my wife vetoed that relatively quickly," Larsen said with a laugh. Two months later they found an industrial space outside of Corvallis, off Highway 34, that worked for their needs. It is 1,000 square feet and contains two tanks, four smaller fermenters, a walk-in cooler, an office and room for the 2 Towns truck.

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