Just minutes before she was scheduled to referee a boy’s varsity basketball game at St. Mary’s Academy, Michelle Campbell was told she would not be allowed to work the game because she is a woman.
“When I put that shirt on, I don’t see a gender. I’m an official,” she told “Good Morning America” today in a live interview from Kansas…
“I’m just an official out there to enforce the rules of the game. … My responsibility is to make all the right calls and so that the athletes have a great game,” she said…
Campbell says that if the school changes its rules she would be happy to officiate at St. Mary’s.
Let’s hear it – one more time: “gimme that old time religion, gimme that old time religion”…
who cares
Most likely, someone who isn’t a bible-thumping blivet.
‘Old time religion’ nothing. Check the school guys, its a Roman Catholic school. Not a bible thumper. Its Old World Jesuit Religion.
Just to make the point.
Just shows you that Muslims aren’t the only ones out there with ridiculous rules when it comes to women and society.
Technically St. Mary wouldn’t know about balls either.
Who cares… There are always these kinds of issues that come up.. There used to be the whole “no female reporters in male locker rooms” push for a long time. Yet we never hear how male reporters don’t seem to be allowed in female locker rooms.
I’m all for equal rights, but over the years it seems a lot of people don’t want equal rights. They just want more rights than everybody else.
Yeah this woman should be allowed to ref a game, but then again, you really can’t say ‘freedom of speech or religion or whatever’ considering it is their freedom to not let this woman ref a game. It might not be right, but you really can’t push free this and that, when it just means you should be allowed to do whatever you want, but when others do it, it’s wrong.
#4
Just shows you that Muslims aren’t the only ones out there with ridiculous rules when it comes to women and society.
I totally agree. The only right thing for here to do is strap on some C4 and go blow up the f—ing gym during the game!
If that’s the picture of the ref, then had she kept her mouth shut, they may have just assumed she was a man.
That’s a man baby, yea!
I don’t see color myself. People tell me I’m white. I just have to take their word for it. 😛
This is an odd-ball school with odd-ball beliefs. They are about to be tossed from the Kansas State High School Activities Association. They rank up there with Bob Jones University and Liberty University. The best way to describe them, in my opinion, is phucking wackos.
Funny thing, they won’t allow women to be affiliated with the team in any manner yet the school is named for a woman.
Don’t confuse this school as associated with the Roman Catholic Church. The leader of this sect was excommunicated by John Paul II. You really have to piss the Church off for an excommunication.
It’s stuff like this that makes me embarrassed to have been born in Kansas. We moved from there when I was a baby, but it still hurts.
#12…What sect do they belong to?? You’re right, you really have to work hard to get excommunicated these days.
Their Ag school teaches “If a menstruating woman works in a field than the harvest will be poor.”
[Comment deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
So do they let men be officials in women’s sports? Men coach women?
Wow… 17 posts and nobody has universally blasted all of Christianity! I think that’s a new record.
Not all churches are like the one in the story and the number is getting fewer and fewer (in the US at least).
My own church has a woman bishop and about half the pastoral staff are women.
She’s reallys sexy. I can see why they would want to keep her away from young boys, who easily succumb to these vile temptresses.
http://tinyurl.com/ysdc5w
Update:
School Offers Explanation For Ref’s Removal
POSTED: 1:53 pm CST February 20, 2008
UPDATED: 2:24 pm CST February 20, 2008
The headmaster of a Catholic school in Kansas that refused to allow a female referee to officiate a boys’ basketball game said the reason for the school’s action has been misrepresented.
Michelle Campbell, 49, and other referees have said Campbell was told she could not officiate a game Feb. 2 at the school near Topeka, Kan., because the school did not believe women should have authority over boys.
“This alleged reason was neither stated nor is it held by any officials of St. Mary’s Academy,” the Rev. Vicente Griego, headmaster of St. Mary’s Academy, said in a written statement released Tuesday.
“The formation of adolescent boys is best accomplished by male role models, as the formation of girls is best accomplished by women,” the statement said. “Hence in the boys’ athletic competitions, it is important that the various role models (coaches and referees) be men.”
On Wednesday, Darin Putthoff, the referee who was scheduled to work the game with Campbell, stood by his account about what happened about 10 minutes before the Feb. 2 game.
Putthoff said St. Mary’s Athletic Director Keith Perry told him, “We have a problem: we don’t allow women to referee here” and “it’s something to do with women having authority over men.”
“That’s what his statement was,” Putthoff said. “He seemed kind of shocked and didn’t really know what he was talking about or have an understanding of the policy. He was shooting from the hip.”
Campbell, 49, of Ozawkie, Kan., did not return a phone call Wednesday from The Associated Press.
She is a retired police officer in her second year as a referee. In earlier interviews, Campbell said she did not mean for the incident to attract so much attention and reported it to the Kansas State High School Activities Association only so it could be aware of the school’s stance in case the issue comes up again.
In his statement, Griego said the academy has “many honorable ladies of talent and erudition” on its faculty and staff and believes the Old Testament’s Fourth Commandment requires honor to father and mother “as well as all authority.”
He said the Catholic church has always promoted the ideal of educating boys and girls separately during adolescence, particularly in physical education. And, he said, boys who are being taught to respect women and girls cannot be placed in athletic competitions “where they are forced to play inhibited by their concern about running into a female referee.”
St. Mary’s Academy, about 25 miles northwest of Topeka, Kan., is owned and operated by the Society of St. Pius X, which follows older Roman Catholic laws. The society’s world leader, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated by Pope John Paul II in the late 1980s.
Putthoff, the pastor of a non-denominational church in Topeka, said Perry was a friend and he had nothing against St. Mary’s Academy. But, he added, “the institution is backpedaling and looking for an escape hatch.”
The school said Wednesday that Griego was not available for further comment.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association has scheduled a hearing for March 11 to discuss the incident.
The association could decide to remove St. Mary’s Academy from its list of approved schools, which means St. Mary’s could not compete against the association’s more than 300 member schools. If it is removed, St. Mary’s Academy still would be able to compete against approved schools that are not members of the association.
#20, EotT,
Thanks for posting that.
I guess they can answer to the Committee why their boys can’t play with the girls. Then they can explain to the parents why no one else will play with their boys.