Discrimination in school?

I recently read a story on abcnews.com about a 17-year old girl in Fort Worth, Texas that is pregnant. Mackenzie McCollum, a senior at the Arlington Heights High School, a member of the volleyball team at the school, continued to dart around the court even four months pregnant. She had plans to do so until her doctor advised her otherwise. That was until an upset parent of one of her team mates advised the athletic director that Mackenzie was pregnant and did not want her daughter to play on a team with a pregnant girl. The athletic director and the school both told Mackenzie she could not play on the team until she got a doctors note stating she was OK to play. Mackenzie received the note stating she could continue to play volleyball as long as there was no contact and her heart rate stayed under 140 beats per minute. However, the school sent her mother a letter stating the accommodations could not be met because they could not continuously monitor her heart rate and there is a chance of physical contact. The doctor then sent a note stating she could play with no restrictions and she could attend the game the next day. This should have been great news. When Mackenzie returned to the team, she had to confront the head coach, Jack Warren, who she was told “outed” her to the entire volleyball team. Mackenzie was devastated. She was trying to keep it a secret to avoid any confrontation. Coach Warren declined several requests from Outside the Lines for comment on rather he did disclose the information or not. This would violate the constitutional right to privacy. Mackenzie stated that after the team meeting she received several calls and text messages from friends and teammates concerned about her. She stated that after everyone knew she could not walk down the halls at school without people staring or whispering and she knew they were talking about her. Mackenzie stated she was OK with all that, she just wanted to get back on the court. However, to add injury to insult, the coach cut her playing time stating that he always does that before people move up and before the seniors leave. But Mackenzie said she looked at the court and noticed that everyone else was still there. She felt devastated. She stated this was the one thing she could count on and it was being taken away from her. Mackenzie was devastated so much that she even considered abortion even though it is against her religion. Mackenzie’s mother has filed four complaints with the US Department of Education stating the school district discriminated against her daughter on the basis of her sex and the retaliated against her, which is a Title 9 problem, a federal law prohibiting the discrimination of students. Mackenzie is set to graduate in December and she knows she has her mom to assist her if need be.

I am not entirely certain how I feel about this article. I got pregnant when I was 14 with my first child and I was 15 when I got pregnant with my second. However, I was not involved with sports and any after school projects. I could not imagine being as involved as she is and getting pregnant. But I always say everything happens for a reason. I know where Mackenzie is coming from about trying to keep it a secret. I knew everyone would find out eventually but it was my decision to tell people not anyone else’s. However, when I was pregnant with my daughter I was going to school with my cousin’s girlfriend and she took it upon herself to tell everyone. I was very hurt and upset. I would not trade my kids for anything in the world but at that age I was embarrassed and was afraid of the whispers and the snickers behind my back. I did drop out during my first semester of my freshman year because of it. I soon realized that I wanted to go back to school so I decided to go to the alternative school in my town so I didn’t have to deal with mean kids my age. I delivered my son 8 weeks early during my second semester of my freshman year, the last week of school to be exact. So I had all summer with him, no homework, no being up all night and then going to school all day. I understand where this girl is coming from to a point, however, I think if she really cared about volley ball as much is she is stating then she would not have been a little more careful.