Recently I was driving home and heard an interesting story on the radio. It was about a high school student and volleyball player named Mackenzie McCollum who ran into trouble with her school when she became pregnant and wanted to continue playing on the school team. ESPN has a pretty comprehensive story that can be viewed here.

After the pregnancy was brought to the attention of the school (by the parent of another student; Mackenzie had told her family and some friends but otherwise had intended to keep the pregnancy a secret), Mackenzie was told by school officials that in accordance with district policy, she needed to get a doctor’s note clearing her to play. She was able to provide the note, but it was rejected because the doctor included restrictions, including one that stated that Mackenzie’s heart rate must not exceed 140 while she was on the court. It was only after the doctor provided a second, restriction-free note that McCollum was allowed back on the team. In the meantime, McCollum’s coach, in violation of privacy policies, had announced her pregnancy to her teammates. She alleges that he also restricted her play after her return. The school is now being investigated for Title IX violations.

I have mixed feelings about this story and some of the coverage of it that I’ve seen. On the one hand, the coach’s decision to reveal McCollum’s pregnancy to her teammates is indefensible; his behavior was entirely inappropriate and unprofessional. If the allegations about cutting McCollum’s playing time (as well as other alleged retaliatory acts) are true, then that, too, is wrong. And to the degree that any of this is about shaming this young woman for her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, well, I don’t agree with that. I think McCollum has done something (not all on her own, obviously, though it appears that the father is no longer in the picture) that will make her life harder, but by my own moral code she has not acted immorally.

On the other hand, my first assumption was that the school was probably more concerned about liability issues than moral ones, and nothing I’ve read about this case has given me cause to think differently. McCollum alleges the moral judgment on the part of the school district, but I’ve heard nothing that actually backs that up. Feministing has a story that calls the school official’s concerns (and concerns in general about pregnant women playing sports) “paternalistic”, but my reaction to that is that McCollum is not somehow constitutionally guaranteed the right to play on her high school team. It’s not as if they are trying to control her right to exercise across the board; again, it’s a school team and I would not blame the school district for being nervous about liability, given the litigiousness of our society. If there were Title IX or other violations, that’s one thing, but to pretend that the school’s concerns were unreasonable (for instance, in rejecting the first doctor’s note) seems disingenuous to me.

Furthermore, while I again don’t approve of slapping a scarlet “A” on McCollum’s chest, I also don’t think the behavior of individuals who are not school officials should be blamed on the school or the school district; McCollum references people staring at and whispering about her in the school halls and the Feministing article mentions the odious nature of many of the comments about the case on the ESPN boards. There are probably few places one can find more judgment, cattiness and old-fashioned meanness than in high school hallways and on anonymous internet message boards. That’s unfortunate, but I think it’s simple human nature at work, not some organized campaign of harassment or retaliation.

I’ll admit my view of the whole story may be colored a bit by the reporting when I originally heard it on the radio; the story finished up with the bright announcement by the reporter that McCollum intends to continue on with her plans (which, good for her), just with “a little bit more responsibility”. A little bit more responsibility? If McCollum had bought a guinea pig, that would be “a little bit more responsibility” – a baby is 18 years of legal responsibility, at least as many of financial responsibility, and a lifetime of emotional responsibility. I hope McCollum realizes that, and wish her the best.