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Supreme Court justices consider whether Title IX covers retaliation claims By HOPE YEN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court considered Tuesday whether a landmark gender equity law shields k people who report discrimination, * hearing the case of an Alabama girls basketball coach who was fired after complaining that the boys were treated better. In a case testing the scope of the Title IX law, Roderick Jackson used the statute as the basis for a lawsuit against the Birmingham Board of Education, claiming wrongful termination. Jackson lost his coaching job in 2001 after repeatedly asking the Birmingham school officials to provide his team a regulation-size gym with basketball rims that weren’t bent — just like the boys’ ream had. He remained on the payroll as a teacher. Lawyers for the board contend that if the justices side with Jackson it will open the door to a flood of litigation. Title IX prohibits gender discrimination in public and private ■ schools that receive federal funding, which almost all do. It covers admissions, recruitment, course offerings, counseling, financial aid, student health and housing, as well as athletics. At issue is whether Congress intended to allow lawsuits by people — regardless of their sex — who say they were punished for pointing out gender bias. The court appeared split along ideological lines. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — who was joined at times by liberal colleagues David Souter, John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer — pressed Birmingham School Board lawyer Kenneth L. Thomas on whether bias complaints would be fully aired if coaches and teachers could be fired without recourse. When Thomas replied that plenty of complaints are reported and resolved voluntarily, Ginsburg interrupted. “To say ‘trust me’ is not an answer,” she said, contending that discrimination victims often “call and call and get no response.” “If we say to a school, you can’t retaliate, that’s a powerful tool to prevent retaliation and to force them to do something about discrimination,” Ginsburg said. But Justice Antonin Scalia said expanding Title IX protections when the statute is silent on issues like Jackson’s would be unfair. “In other statutes, when Congress does create a cause of action, it goes out of its way to create a cause of action for retaliation,” he said. “It’s fair to say when states signed on for funding, they should have known they would be subject to lawsuits.” • Lower courts in the case ruled against Jackson, noting that the Title IX statute doesn’t address the matter. But other federal courts have reached an opposite conclusion in similar cases, reasoning that coaches and teachers are better positioned to report discrimination than students. Irving L. Gornstein of the Justice Department, which backs Jackson in the case, said allowing lawsuits like Jackson’s “is vital to promoting the purposes of the act.” But Thomas argued that the statute never mentions the word “retaliation.” Allowing whistleblowers to sue — regardless of their sex — would open school districts to a wave of lawsuits that lawmakers never intended. “Don’t we have to consider congressional intent?” he asked. PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Roderick Jackson, a Birmingham, Alabama women’s basketball coach, center, talks to his attorneys, Walter Dellinger, left, and Marcia Greenberger, right, outside the Supreme Court in Washington Tuesday after a hearing on Title IX, the law best known for promoting women’s athletics. Jackson’s case has drawn wide interest, with support from a coalition of 180 civil rights groups including the NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Federation of Teachers, as well as dozens of women’s advocacy groups. Opposing Jackson are the National School Boards Association as well as nine states — Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. They argue in part that Jackson could kave sued under the First Amendment or other civil rights laws, but not Title IX. Unlike colleges and universities, public high schools are not required by federal law to disclose how they are funding their athletic programs. As a result, monitoring of these programs — of which 42 percent of the participants are girls — is largely left to school boards and activists, advocates say. Jackson was rehired last year as coach on an interim basis, and the old gym now has two new, regulation-sized hoops. The case is Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, 02-1672. More than a semester abroad, some students consider full degree overseas By JUSTIN POPE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS For some, it’s about the adventure of an extended stay at a foreign university. For others, it’s about saving money, or just getting farther away from home. Whatever the reason, as they send out their college applications, attending school outside the United States is an ^ option more high school students appear W to be considering. Foreign universities are urging them on, smoothing the logistics and riding the U.S. college fair circuit to talk up their opportunities and often lower price tags. No overall statistics are available, but the number of U.S. students pursuing degrees in some popular destination countries is growing: ♦ In Canada, the number of American undergraduates and graduate students has more than doubled since 1997 to about 6,000. ♦ In Great Britain, the number of full-time American undergrads is up 53 percent since 2001 to about 2,300. ♦ About 1,600 Americans are pursuing undergraduate degrees in Australia; the growth rate isn’t available, but the overall number of Americans pursuing some form of study there rose 10 percent last year. “We feel it’s a) high quality, b) good value and c) it’s going to give the students a very different educational experience,” said Karen McBride, vice president for international affairs at the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. While roughly 175,000 students at American universities go abroad for a limited stay — nine times out of 10 for a semester or less — applicants see enrolling full time as a chance for a richer experience. “I don’t think I’m going to miss out,” said Susan Schell, a high school senior from Birmingham, Ala., who is applying to several universities in England. She hopes to work in Europe, and thinks attending college there will help. To her, an American college wouldn’t be all that different from high school. “It seems to me, talking to people that live in Europe, that there’s a different aura,” she said. “The pace of living there is so beautiful.” Sinead Keegan, from Boston and now in her final year at McGill University in Montreal, said she has gained a degree of independence — socially and academically — she wouldn’t have gotten in the United States. “It doesn’t suit everybody, but I think I’m better prepared to head out into the real world than people who have had their hands held all along,” she said. McGill has tripled its enrollment of American undergraduates to more than 1,800 in less than a decade. Recruiters visit 150 U.S. high schools and college fairs each year, according to Howard Tontini, the school’s recruiting director. Many foreign schools are making the application process is easier — often they consider the same materials, like SAT scores and high school transcripts, that American colleges require. Many guidance counselors say they encourage students to explore the option. “We probably would get behind that, depending on the person, depending on the major,” said Tom Hughart, guidance director at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts, who says he has noticed stepped-up recruiting by Scottish universities. “Someone who wants to teach English literature, going over to Trinity (College) in Dublin would make a lot of sense.” But college abroad isn’t for everyone. Students may come to regret missing out on quintessential American college experiences outside the classroom, like football Saturdays or the “Greek” life of fraternities and sororities. They may discover that foreign universities don’t offer the same resources as generally wealthier American ones, and students planning to return to the United States risk missing out on career networks and pipelines. Gunnar Olson, Schell’s guidance counselor at Indian Springs School near Birmingham, said some of his students who initially expressed interest this fall in going abroad — prompted by disappointment with the results of the U.S. presidential election — have since reconsidered. Even Schell said she may return after a year. I& ne llfuoets<uty of U outti Oanot/na and f/(onse 0> orft onations* oft tJi e ffnee/i ci^(//a<je cofHlia//y inoite^ifou to attend a Sdididay Often fd&Hi&e S7ut/sida(/, Me Second of Qbeceni S~(00 ^Thousand iWoun 6':00 — J}:00fsn. f/rec/t tydlaye ilnioer&ibf of SontA (datndina I t77te sii/etoa/As o/ ft articif* utiiup houses' will f>e ilia min at e<l Conditions' to JbhilantAnofties ane- afflweciated