As Greely High School addresses inequity in boys and girls sports, some parents say not enough has been done
Greely captain Hannah Hussey headers the ball while Poland's Davis Hill pressures her during on Oct. 7 game in Poland. (Libby Kamrowski Kenny/Staff Photographer)
Holly Wallace noticed differences in what her daughter’s softball team and the boys baseball team received through Greely High School’s athletic department.
An active supporter of Cumberland-North Yarmouth school district’s softball team, the Cumberland resident said female players had a lower-quality batting cage and practice field than their male counterparts. When she raised the issue, Wallace was told the differences were out of the district’s control as the fields were on town property, and she moved on.
Last June, as Wallace’s daughter pitched her final game of high school softball before graduating, the district revealed an external investigation found that discrepancies between boys and girls teams at Greely High School — including the batting cages — violated federal laws against sex-based discrimination.
“If I’d known it was a Title IX violation, I wonder if I would have changed how loud I got years and years ago about the facility. I wonder if other parents would, too,” said Wallace.
As Maine School Administrative District 51 staff respond to these findings this fall, the community is hearing how the athletic department is remedying the deficiencies — and asking what’s being done to ensure equity in high school sports.
TITLE IX VIOLATIONS
Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education and other activities that receive federal funding. The 1972 statute requires schools to provide equivalent opportunities, benefits and treatments for male and female athletes. This includes equitable equipment, practice and game time, and access to facilities and private funds.
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MSAD 51 received five complaints about Title IX violations from September 2023 to June 2026, according to district records. The complaints from parents and coaches included instances in which the boys alpine ski team received travel and lodging for a state race while the girls team had to find their own, the girls lacrosse team didn’t get game music while the boys team did, and practice equipment provided to the boys baseball team not being equally provided to the girls softball team.
In an internal review, the district determined that all five complaints included at least one Title IX violation and assured they were being remediated.
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Greely High School’s Title IX audit finds inequity in athletics
Following these complaints, last fall, the school district voluntarily hired the law firm Drummond Woodsum to audit gender equity across the Greely High School athletic program.
The review determined there was less preference for some girls teams.
Broadly, the scheduling of facilities for practices and games disadvantaged girls teams, who more frequently had lower-quality outdoor fields and inconvenient practice and game time slots. Some sport-specific findings included the girls softball team having less access to training aids and better fields, the girls hockey team not having a locker room at Family Ice Center in Falmouth, and fundraised money disproportionately enhancing the boys teams.
Greely softball pitcher Katie Wallace winds up during a game against Freeport in May 2025. (Cooper Sullivan/Staff Writer)
At an Oct. 1 school board meeting, MSAD 51 Athletic Director David Shapiro outlined how the athletic department has was addressing the findings. Shapiro promised the scheduling of facilities and practice times would involve more collaboration. The hockey teams would take turns using the single ice rink locker room. The allocation of booster funding would receive more oversight, and the softball team would get a better batting cage.
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While the consensus was that these fixes were positive, several members of the school board asked Shapiro to take broader accountability for the culture that allowed these inequalitiesin the first place.
“Equity initiatives can’t be based on responses to problems all the time. We have to take leadership in this area,” said school board member Sara Staples.
Others put their response to the presentation more bluntly.
“This is embarrassing,” said Greely parent Matt Grondin.
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During public comment, junior varsity girls basketball coach and district parent Jamie Clark said she was “deeply disappointed” by how Title IX violations had been handled. She also said she had not spoken up during the Drummond Woodsum investigation because she feared retaliation.
Clark also said she has spoken with other parents and coaches about gender equity concerns who have not come forward also out of fear of retaliation and because they have the impression that “nothing will change.” Other parents said they have heard from other district employees or coaches who feel similarly.
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Shapiro directed all requests for comment to the superintendent. Porter said complaints regarding retaliation are addressed by the district.
PLAY BALL
Some community members later expressed their frustration with the school district’s response to the external audit.
“The tone felt very much like, ‘Oh, we’re great. We made a few mistakes, we fixed them. We’ve got no big issue,’” said Jessica Grondin, whose daughter plays soccer and softball at Greely High School and whose husband spoke during public comment. “That was super disappointing for me, and I think others as well.”
Grondin has not filed a formal Title IX complaint, but had emailed the athletic department about smaller things she and other parents had noticed abou lesser resources for her daughter’s teams. She felt dejected by the limited response, she said.
Several parents said they were not worried about how the district addresses official Title IX complaints, which has a set procedure, but how staff respond to smaller differences between the treatment of boys and girls teams that contribute to a culture of inequality. Responding to the audit’s findings with issue-specific solutions instead of a more widespread change was a reflection of this approach, they said.
Greely’s Molly Magoun takes a shot at the Freeport goal while Freeport’s Laurel Wight plays defense on June 19. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
“My impression was that it was an immediate downplay of the systematic inadequacies as to why these violations occurred,” said Jim Faunce, who has daughters in eighth and 11th grade who play school sports. “It gave me the impression that there’s no real plan to change.”
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Parents said their daughters only sometimes noticed the less preferential treatment of their teams. Wallace said she felt “embarrassed” for not recognizing that what she saw was a Title IX violation, worrying she let her daughter’s team down.
Northeastern University law professor Martha Davis, an expert in the field of women’s rights and constitutional law, said it doesn’t rest with participants to report Title IX violations. Instead, school staff should be equipped to abide by the federal statute.
“It’s really a matter of training, to understand when these things should be reported,” said Davis.
Davis also said Title IX violations are not uncommon in public education, as disparities often go unrecognized or accepted as natural. But small inequalities in the treatment of the sexes in schools undermine our constitutional values of equality, she said.
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“If things are not equivalent or equal, it communicates to the participants on the losing end that their participation is not as important, their achievements are not as important, which isn’t true,” said Davis.
On Oct. 22 in his regular superintendent’s report to the school board, Porter supplemented Shapiro’s Oct. 1 presentation in response to community feedback.
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“We have a Title IX problem in our athletic program that needs attention,” said Porter. “We can do better and be better.”
Porter shared how the district is taking new steps to remedy the culture around gender equity. He said all staff will receive comprehensive Title IX training over the next two months. Coaches for the winter season, which starts in two weeks, will also have mandatory training.
He also said there would be a regular assessment of Title IX compliance across athletic programs, the mode of which yet to be determined, and that the athletic director would consult with the district’s equity committee.
“We shouldn’t even have violations on the physical side,” said Porter. “But culture and climate, that will be more challenging to look at.”
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Tagged: greely high school, high school sports, MSAD 51, title ix
Sophie is a community reporter for Cumberland, Yarmouth, North Yarmouth and Falmouth and previously reported for the Forecaster. Her memories of briefly living on Mount Desert Island as a child drew her. More by Sophie Burchell
