Melissa Jennings was a backup goalkeeper at the University of North Carolina from 1996 to 1998. The head coach of the team ever since it was created in 1979 is Anson Dorrance who has led the team to 19 national championships. However, when Jennings was on the team she complained about Dorrance’s sexual harassment and the way he ran his team. She accused him of telling the girls he had fantasies about them and always asking who they were having sex with. When Jennings tried to file a complaint the schools lawyer told her just to work it out with the coach. After this occurred she tried to take her case to a federal court but was denied twice by the federal courts. However, the courts then decided to meet En Banc so that all the judges of the 4th circuit could debate and decide what to do about this case. While they were together they chose to reverse the decision and are going to have a trial in 2008.
This is a very touchy subject because the coach is a man on a women’s team. If you have the same sex coach as your players you can get a little more lee way in what is acceptable to say or do. But if they are of the opposite gender people can take offense a lot easier. However, in this case if what Jennings said is true then the coach is not even walking the line anymore. He has over stepped his boundaries by a long way. I cant understand why it took 10 years for anybody to even look at the case either though. It sounded like it was rather clear on what was going on and with how touchy everybody is today I would have though the coach would have been fired a long time ago.
http://title-ix.blogspot.com/2007/04/en-banc-court-sends-dorrance-case-to.html
