HOUSE MEMORIAL 8

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Danice Picraux

A MEMORIAL

PROCLAIMING JANUARY 25, 2011 AS "TITLE 9'S THIRTY-NINTH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION DAY" IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

     WHEREAS, girls who participate in sports are more likely to graduate from high school and college and have better grades than girls who do not play sports; and

     WHEREAS, medical research demonstrates that girls who begin sports young in life are more likely to continue being active as they get older; and

     WHEREAS, if a girl has not participated in sports by the time she is ten years old, there is only a ten percent chance she will participate in sports when she is twenty-five years old; and

     WHEREAS, the women's sports foundation reports that female high school athletes are more likely to delay sexual activity and thus have lower odds of becoming pregnant as teenagers than their non-athletic peers; and

     WHEREAS, the Journal of Drug Education and other research publications show that female student athletes are less likely to use drugs or to smoke than female non-athletes; and

     WHEREAS, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that female athletes are less likely to have long-term health problems such as obesity; breast cancer, the most common form of cancer among women; and cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among American women; and

     WHEREAS, the Journal of Psychological Reports published the results of a study showing that participation in sports help girls stay psychologically healthy, particularly during adolescence when girls become psychologically vulnerable; and

     WHEREAS, the Journal of Research on Adolescence reports that girls are twice as likely as boys to drop out of sports; and

     WHEREAS, the Seton Hall Journal of Sport Law reports that girls drop out of sports at younger ages than boys; and

     WHEREAS, the same research reports that, by elementary school, girls are less physically active than boys; and

     WHEREAS, Title 9 is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools and promotes increased sports opportunities for girls in schools; and

     WHEREAS, Title 9 has demonstrated that the more opportunities girl students have to be active, the more active they are; and

     WHEREAS, according to a February 2010 report in The New York Times, since Title 9's passage in 1972, girls and women have been participating in sports in record numbers at all levels, including youth sports, college sports and professional sports; and

     WHEREAS, the same report attributes to Title 9 a twenty percent increase in women's education and a forty percent increase in employment for twenty-five-year-old to thirty-four-year-old women; and

     WHEREAS, compliance with Title 9 benefits New Mexico schools financially, as federal general education funding is contingent on compliance and requires districts and the public education department to have Title 9 coordinators; and

     WHEREAS, in 2010, the New Mexico legislature passed the School Athletics Equity Act, which provides transparency in reporting the athletic opportunities that schools provide to girl students pursuant to Title 9; and

     WHEREAS, the School Athletics Equity Act helps identify schools that need assistance in providing more sports opportunities to girl students before schools are required to spend thousands of dollars and school personnel time in lawsuits;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that January 25, 2011 be proclaimed "Title 9's Thirty-Ninth Birthday Celebration Day" in the house of representatives and thus highlight the successes that the law has brought to New Mexico in improved health benefits for girl students as well as health care cost savings for New Mexico; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the educators who are working diligently to provide athletic opportunities to female students in New Mexico be congratulated; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor and to the secretary of public education.

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