The April 23 article accusing the Federal Way Public Schools of Title IX violations is laughingly ridiculous.

As noted by the school spokesman, the district has “offered the same amount of sports for boys and girls for years.” The fact that the participation levels are lagging for girls amounts to apathy from the female school district population. Is the district supposed to force girls to play sports when they have no interest to do so?

I think the district has enough on its plate right now without this unnecessary distraction. Given the school district’s financial crisis, here and elsewhere, perhaps Title IX should be scrapped like a number of other activities. Case in point, the current budget proposal includes a 3 percent reduction in salary for all K-12 employees, larger classroom sizes and a possible 2011-12 district budget cut of $14 million. Why are we funding a number of student sport activities if the student participation is not where it needs to be? Perhaps, in reality, we can’t force participation equality in the schools as the legislation of Title IX proposes to do.

Don Zeman, Federal Way