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February 2010, Featured Articles, Sports Law
Another Title IX Retaliation Lawsuit Emerges
Floodgates of litigation opening
Texas A&M's former head diving coach, Kevin Wright, has filed a Title IX retaliation lawsuit. He was fired in September from his position as head coach. The lawsuit alleges that he was terminated in retaliation for reporting concerns about gender discrimination in athletics. Wright has filed suit under a Texas whistleblower protection statute that protects state employees.
The floodgates of litigation seem to have opened regarding a new wave of Title IX complaints and administrators across the nation need to take notice. Multiple cases from California have been resolved recently. The prevalence of these cases has been significantly influenced by the Supreme Court's decision in 2005 in Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education. In that case, the Court ruled that individuals who complain about sex discrimination and are later subjected to some form of retaliatory action have a private right of action for retaliation under Title IX. Jackson involved a former girl's high school coach who had allegedly been dismissed because of his gender equity advocacy for the girls' teams.
The Jackson decision was a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court because the prohibition against retaliation was not explicitly set forth in Title IX.
Dave O'Brien J.D. has been a college sports executive and educator for over 25 years. He served as a Division I athletic director at Long Beach State University, Temple University and Northeastern University for 16 years (1991-2007).
O'Brien is currently the Director of the Sports Management Program at Drexel University where he also teaches at the undergraduate, graduate and law school levels. In addition to his academic position, O'Brien is the managing partner of the O'Brien Sports Group which provides a wide range of consulting services to the college sports industry, including NCAA rules compliance, risk management audits, business support services, executive recruitment, training workshops and more. He is also an editor of College Sports Business News.
O'Brien is active nationally in sports law matters as co-author of a monthly column on college sports law issues published in College Athletics and the Law and as a consultant on sports topics including pay equity, retaliation, harassment, Title IX, and coaching contracts.
Prior to becoming an athletic administrator, O'Brien served in a variety of roles in higher education, which included assistant to the president for legal and legislative affairs at Montclair State University and the assistant vice president for administration and finance at Long Beach State. He also served on the legislative staff of the New Jersey Senate and practiced law in New Jersey.
O'Brien is a graduate of Moravian College and Seton Hall Law School, and has also attained certification from the Sports Management Institute as part of its inaugural class. He can be reached at dobrien@collegesportsbusinessnews.com