KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Missouri Parks and Recreation Department was thrown a curveball on Thursday, as the American Civil Liberty Union claims that the city isn’t playing fair with girls on city softball fields.
According to a complaint filed on Thursday with the Missouri Human Rights Commission, the ACLU claims that girls’ softball teams are being shut out from playing on public fields in Kansas City. The ACLU alleges that the Parks and Recreation Department discriminates against girls by contracting with a boy’s baseball club for exclusive use of athletic fields in the Brookside and Waldo neighborhoods.
In its complaint, the ACLU also alleges that the manager of four girl’s softball teams in south Kansas City applied for permits to play on city fields, but was told that he, “could not have the permits…because of a long-standing contract between the city and the baseball club.”
In a statement, ACLU legal director Doug Bonney says, “the city’s park permitting practices favor boy’s sports and relegate girl’s sports to the back seat.”
Requests by FOX 4 for comment on the complaint from the city and the ACLU were not returned on Thursday.
