Female Basketball Coach Awarded Boys' Varsity Job
July 29, 2004
Geraldine Fuhr was the long-term head coach of the Hazel Park High School women’s varsity basketball team. In 1999, the boys’ varsity basketball coach announced his intention to retire from coaching at the end of the year. He recommended Ms. Fuhr for the job. Fuhr and a male teacher at Hazel Park who had coached the boys’ freshman basketball team for two years were the only applicants for the position. Fuhr intended to continue to coach the girls’ team if given the boys’ varsity job (the seasons did not overlap).
A committee headed by the superintendent of schools selected the male applicant for the position based in part on the fact that several members of the school board did not want Fuhr to be named the boys’ varsity basketball coach. The board president was quoted as having said that he was “very concerned about a female being the head boys’ basketball coach in Hazel Park.”
Ms. Fuhr sued for sex discrimination under Title VII and the Michigan Civil Rights Act. The jury returned a verdict awarding Fuhr $245,000 in present damages and $210,000 in future damages. The District Court then granted Fuhr’s request for injunctive relief ordering the school district to hire her as the boys’ basketball coach and struck the jury’s award of future damages because, as the boys’ coach, Fuhr would receive the increased pay for that job. The school district appealed.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the jury’s present damages verdict for Fuhr stating that not only had Fuhr made her prima facie case, she had also presented direct evidence that gender was a factor in the decision not to hire her as the boys’ varsity basketball coach.
In dealing with the question of the order directing the school board to hire Fuhr as the boys’ varsity coach, the Court of Appeals noted that the District Court had wide discretion to impose equitable remedies in order to “fashion the most complete relief possible designed to make the victim of unlawful discrimination whole.” The school district argued that ordering it to replace the individual that had been hired for the boys’ coaching job was inappropriate because it required the school district to “bump” an innocent third party. The Court of Appeals dismissed this argument stating that, “the District Court nonetheless recognized that denying Fuhr
an equitable remedy would perpetuate the effect of discrimination proved by
her” and found that the order forcing the school board to hire her as the
boys’ varsity coach was appropriate.
For more information, e-mail Guy O. Farmer at
guy.farmer@hklaw.com or call toll
free, 1-888-688-8500.
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