The Girl Whose Parents Sued Her School When She Wasn't Allowed To Play For The Boys Basketball Team Got Expelled

FTW- The parents who sued their daughter’s school after she was denied a chance to play basketball on the boys team learned that she and her sister were being expelled as they walked into a special event hosted for her by the New York Liberty on Wednesday night.

The Liberty invited 12-year-old Sydney Phillips and a few of her friends for a practice session after they heard about the school’s decision to not allow her to play on the boys basketball team at St. Theresa’s School in Kenilworth, NJ. Sydney had played on a girls team for the school last year, but there wasn’t enough interest to have a girls team this year. After the school wouldn’t allow her to play on the boys team, her parents, Scott Phillips and his wife Theresa Mullen, sued. Last month, a judge ruled in favor of the school, but the family is appealing.

When the family was walking through the front door to meet the Liberty players and coaches, Scott Phillips said he received an email from his attorney. She told him that she had a letter from the Archdiocese of Newark’s attorney informing them that Sydney and her sister were no longer welcome at St. Theresa’s School.

Phillips waited to tell his daughters about the news until after they got home from working out with the Liberty players and coaching staff. He said he tried to bring them to school on Thursday morning but was met at the door and told “we weren’t allowed to bring our kids to school.”

“I’m bummed I couldn’t play,” she said Wednesday. “I’m better than them.”



Soooo, is this girl any good at basketball? That shouldn't be the first question I have when learning that an innocent 12 year old ultimately got expelled from school for wanting to participate in an extracurricular that she loves, but - at the same time - it's the only question that really needs answering. I legitimately have to know how she stacks up athletically against the entirety of this boys team she was forbidden from joining before I give a definitive opinion on this story. 

Tell me this chick can take even one of those snot-nosed little brats off the dribble and I hope this school gets run through the ringer ten times over, but if her talent doesn't warrant playing time with her less pubescent peers then the only bad guys here are mommy and daddy. I don't mean to question the basketball acumen of a 7th grade girl, but she better have a half-decent jumper on her if her parents are going to litigation over her hoop dreams. I would never blindly defend a Catholic School because more often on not they are going to be on the wrong side of an exclusive situation, but if they are getting sued because they won't let a student become a charity case then they almost had to send her packing to the public side of town. I'm inclined to believe that's not the case and that this poor girl has been wronged, but if this sob story is going to get kicked around the internet and generate all sorts of sympathy then I don't think that a viral highlight tape is too much to ask for.