(San Diego, California) An investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has confirmed what two lesbian college coaches had complained about – that San Diego Mesa College’s athletic program discriminated against women athletes.

The violations OCR identified were initially the subject of a complaint by former head basketball coach Lorri Sulpizio shortly before she and her domestic partner, the former director of basketball operations, Cathy Bass, were terminated from their employment with Mesa.

Sulpizio and Bass in July filed a discrimination suit against Messa.  The suit alleges that despite Sulpizio’s and Bass’s dedication and demonstrated track record of success leading the women’s basketball program at the community college, Mesa officials unlawfully fired both coaches at the end of the 2007 academic year after they spoke out publicly about the unequal treatment of female athletes and coaches in a local paper. The article identified them as domestic partners.

Both women are represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

The complaint alleges that Mesa officials retaliated against Sulpizio and Bass for repeatedly raising concerns about unequal treatment of female athletes and faculty, as well as discriminating against them and ultimately firing them based on their gender and sexual orientation.

The complaint names Mesa athletic director Dave Evans, San Diego Mesa College, and the San Diego Community College District as defendants.

It alleges they violated numerous federal and state laws, as well as the California constitution.

The OCR investigation focused on gender disparities in the treatment of student-athletes and did not include Sulpizio’s and Bass’s employment discrimination claims.

OCR investigated whether Mesa operates an intercollegiate athletic program that provides benefits, opportunities and services to female athletes that are equivalent to those provided to male athletes.

Based on its investigation of Mesa’s treatment of male and female student athletes, OCR “identified disparities with respect to the scheduling of games, the provision of locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities, and the provision of medical and training facilities.”  OCR concluded that: “These disparities were more than negligible and collectively established a violation of Title IX.”

Specifically, OCR found that:

- Mesa had scheduled football games at the same time as a women’s basketball tournament, and “the result of this was that the female basketball players were not allowed to use the women’s locker room.”

- “Only female athletes have been scheduled to play at a time when they were not able to use their own locker rooms.”

- “The women’s basketball team has been displaced from the women’s locker room by a visiting football team,” forcing the women’s team to use inferior facilities and preventing the visiting team from using any restroom facilities.

- “Softball is the only college team that shares its competition field with another team of a different sport. The baseball field is used exclusively by baseball, while the softball field is shared with the men’s and women’s soccer teams.”

- Mesa’s policy with respect to student-athletes’ access to athletic service trainers “has a disparate, negative impact on female athletes.”

- The OCR determined that these gender inequities have “a negative impact on female athletes,” are “of a substantial and unjustified nature” and “established a violation of Title IX.”

As a result of OCR’s investigation, Mesa entered into a resolution agreement with OCR that addresses the issues that OCR identified.  Mesa’s compliance with the agreement will be monitored by OCR.

“Mesa should comply with the law and ensure that women student-athletes and coaches have the same resources and opportunities as their male counterparts. We are pleased that the Office of Civil Rights is addressing these inequities at Mesa,” said Helen Carroll, sport project director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, in a statement to the media.

Sulpizio served as Head Coach of the Mesa women’s basketball team for five years, from 2002-2007, after spending three years as an assistant coach and then a year as interim head coach. She regularly led the team to championship play at tournaments, and secured high-level finishes in Pacific Coast Conference Championship tournaments in several seasons.

The Mesa women’s basketball team won first place in the 2001-2002 season and third place in both the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons.

Bass began working at Mesa as assistant coach to the women’s basketball team in 1999, and was appointed as an adjunct faculty member and made director of basketball operations for the team in 2006.

Sulpizio and Bass are registered domestic partners in the State of California, and together they have three children.