A federal judge in Sacramento today dismissed claims that four University of California, Davis officials were deliberately indifferent to women's constitutional right to equal treatment in the school's intercollegiate athletic program.
U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell dismissed claims brought by three former U.C. Davis women wrestlers against former Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef ; Robert Franks, former associate vice chancellor for student affairs; Greg Warzecka, athletic director; and Pam Gill-Fisher, former associate athletic director.
Damrell found that although U.C. Davis did not meet all the criteria for compliance with Title IX -- the federal law intended to ensure equal athletic opportunity for male and female students -- the officials reasonably believed that the university was compliant and that the situation involving the women wrestlers had been appropriately resolved. Under the law in existence at the time the issues arose, the officials' actions did not violate a clearly established constitutional right, Damrell said in the ruling.
Arezou Mansourian, Lauren Mancuso and Christine Wing-Si Ng allege that the university first excluded them from the wrestling program in 2000, and then in the fall of 2001 failed to give them a fair opportunity to obtain a position on the team by requiring them to compete against men, using men's rules.
Damrell in December dismissed civil rights claims based on these "discrete acts" because the 2003 suit missed the one-year statute of limitations.
With today's dismissal of the claims against the U.C. Davis officials, the case proceeds to the damages phase.
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