Today the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, the ACLU, the National Women’s Law Center and the Women’s Sports Foundation sent a letter to the National Collegiate Wrestling Association (NCWA) urging it to change its discriminatory policy that prohibits women, like University of Michigan-Dearborn student and national wrestling champion Marina Goocher, from competing against male wrestlers when women wrestlers and women’s teams are unavailable.

Read our letter to the NCWA

“Ever since I can remember, wrestling has been a central part of my life and my identity. When I enrolled in college, the wrestling coach and the wrestlers, all of whom were men, warmly welcomed me because they knew I could help the team win. But right now, as the wrestling season begins, I have to sit on the bench the entire regular season — simply because I am a woman,” said Goocher.

The NCWA governs club wrestling in college and under its current rule Goocher is only allowed to compete against other women. UM-Dearborn does not have a women’s team, and there are no other women wrestlers in her weight class in the entire Midwest region of the NCWA. Unless NCWA changes its policy and Goocher is able to compete against men, she won’t be able to compete for the entire season.

The UM-Dearborn men’s coach wants her to wrestle during the season with his team, and the team wants her to as well, but the NCWA rule prevents her from being able to. The only opportunity the NCWA gives Goocher to participate is in the women’s division of the post-season national club tournament, a tournament she has won the past two years. The letter maintains that the NCWA’s rule is discriminatory and opens up its member schools to legal liability.

“Women should be encouraged to compete in sports that they love and not be denied access just because they are women,” said Bonsitu Kitaba-Gaviglio, staff attorney at the ACLU of Michigan. “NCWA’s rule is based on antiquated and unfair gender stereotypes which courts across the country have struck down as discriminatory. By limiting Marina and other women wrestlers from competing, the NCWA is exposing member schools to potential lawsuits by forcing them to discriminate.”

In high school, Goocher surpassed 100 varsity career wins, all against males — a rare accomplishment for high school wrestlers, regardless of gender. She has earned four girls’ wrestling titles in her weight division from high school or younger, and two women’s titles in college, when she was able to wrestle women from teams outside her region.

High schools across the country allow women to wrestle men when there is no women’s wrestling team, and so does the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Numerous prominent women athletes have successfully wrestled on men’s college teams and competed alongside their teammates, many of them defeating their male opponents. These include Olympian Kelsey Campbell (Arizona State), Olympic silver medalists Patricia Adura-Miranda (Stanford) and Sara McMann (Lock Haven University), World medalists Jenny Wong (Lock Haven), Jackie Berube (University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse), Debbie Weiss (Arizona State) and Afsoon Roshanzamir (UC-Davis), and World Team members Erin Tomeo (Lock Haven), Lauren Wolfe (Cornell), and Jenna Pavlik (Lock Haven).

The ACLU of Michigan announced today a federal lawsuit against the Flint police for placing a disabled child, Cameron McCadden, in handcuffs when he was seven years old.

The incident took place while Cameron was attending an after-school program in October 2015. At the time, he was less than four feet tall and weighed 55 pounds. Cameron did not at any time pose a danger of physical harm to himself or anyone else.

“My seven-year-old child was abused and traumatized by this experience,” said Chrystal McCadden, Cameron’s mother. “They kept him locked in handcuffs for nearly an hour. We’re going to court to win justice for Cameron – and to make sure no child is ever treated that way in Flint, ever again.”

“Putting handcuffs on a seven-year-old child and locking his hands behind his back is inhumane. It’s barbaric. It violates every rule of common sense,” said Mark Fancher, racial justice attorney at the ACLU of Michigan. “This reprehensible act also violates the U.S. Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal Rehabilitation Act, and the laws and policies of the state of Michigan.”

Cameron, who is African-American, has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), under terms of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 

On October 12, 2015, while participating in the YouthQuest after school program at Brownell STEM Academy in Flint, Cameron experienced disability-related behavioral challenges. He reportedly kicked a supply cart and ran around on the school bleachers. In response, YouthQuest personnel called for a school resource officer (SRO) from the Flint Police Department and also called Cameron’s mother, Chrystal McCadden.  The complaint filed today also names YouthQuest as a defendant. 

Flint Police Officer Terrance Walker arrived at the school. Walker handcuffed Cameron, locking his hands behind his back. Chrystal McCadden arrived at the school minutes afterward and demanded that handcuffs be removed from her son. Officer Walker responded that the key was in a lockbox and he was waiting for a police cruiser to bring it to the school. Cameron remained locked with handcuffs behind his back for nearly an hour in the lobby of the building, in full view of other students, parents and after-school personnel.

“You can’t handcuff a child who never should have been handcuffed in the first place and then tell his mother you can’t find the key,” said Jonathan Marko of Marko PLC, an ACLU cooperating attorney who is also representing the McCadden family. “YouthQuest should not respond to disability behavior by calling police.And police should recognize that it is not their role to handcuff 7-year olds for running around because they have ADHD.”

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, students with disabilities are only 12 percent of public school students, but account for 75 percent of students subjected to physical restraint in schools. African-American students represent 19 percent of students with disabilities, but account for 36 percent of these students who are subjected to mechanical restraint such as handcuffs.

Since 2014, the Flint Police Department has doubled the number of officers in public schools.But the department has not designed or implemented policies, procedures or training on how to work with children, how to de-escalate conflict, and how to avoid the use of force against students like Cameron.

“No child should ever be locked in handcuffs,” said Bishop Bernadel Jefferson, pastor of Faith Deliverance Center in Flint, CEO of CAUTION, and an executive board member of the Community-Based Organizations Partnership (CBOP).  “We also have to ask: What are police officers doing in our elementary schools? After all we have been through in Flint, our children need counselors, tutors, nurses and other resources to help them recover from the effects of lead poisoning. We don’t need to be paying police to come in and handcuff small children.”

McCadden v. City of Flint, et al. was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.  

Hostile work environment includes discrimination, retaliation against African-American officers, says 11-year veteran of city police force

DETROIT – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan today filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Detroit, the Detroit Police Department (DPD), Detroit Police Chief James Craig and several DPD executives and officers.

Johnny Strickland, an 11-year veteran of the Detroit police force, is the plaintiff in the legal action. The lawsuit charges the Detroit Police Department and its command officers with allowing a racially hostile work environment.

“This is a police department where racial discrimination is widespread and white supervisory officers discriminate against black subordinates,” said Strickland. “It is a police department where white supervisors retaliate against black subordinates who complain. I filed this lawsuit because discrimination and retaliation were directed at me, and I don’t want any other officers to have to suffer in the way that I did.”

“I am concerned about more than just the welfare of my fellow officers of color,” said Strickland. “If I, as a veteran police officer, can so easily become the victim of police misconduct, then the ordinary black person doesn’t have a chance.”

“The leadership of the Detroit Police Department cannot claim they are unaware of the racially hostile work environment that Johnny Strickland and other officers experience on a daily basis” said Mark Fancher, racial justice attorney at the ACLU of Michigan. “Police Chief James Craig commissioned a report on this very issue, which found ‘a growing racial problem’ based on repeated and systemic incidents of racial harassment and intimidation.”

The report of the Detroit Police Department’s Committee on Race and Equality (CORE) was publicly released on January 12, 2017.Instead of acting to investigate and remedy a hostile work environment, Chief Craig publicly disparaged the report and at least temporarily suspended the work of the committee.

Ten days later, Johnny Strickland was attacked, harassed and humiliated by white police officers, his colleagues in the Detroit Police Department.As described in the lawsuit filed today:

While off duty, Strickland inadvertently entered a crime scene under investigation. He identified himself as a police officer and was then subject to insults, profanity and ridicule by white police officers.

Strickland was “unlawfully placed… in handcuffs and detained… with malicious intent and without cause or justification.” The handcuffs were tightened “with malicious intent to a degree that they caused physical injury.”

While he was unlawfully detained, Strickland’s private vehicle was searched “in the absence of probable cause or a search warrant,” leaving the vehicle “in disarray and soiled by mud.”

Strickland was warned not to report the incident by a white officer, who stated: “This goes nowhere from tonight.” 

“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident,” said Fancher. “Johnny Strickland is coming forward – despite the threat of retaliation – because he knows that what happened to him is just one example of a pattern of discrimination and harassment that was identified by the Police Department’s own Committee on Race and Equality. He wants these illegal practices to stop.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, seeks a declaratory judgement against the illegal racially hostile work environment that currently exists at the Detroit Police Department; an order preventing such illegal acts in the future, and compensatory and punitive damages.

In addition to Fancher and ACLU of Michigan Legal Director Michael Steinberg, Strickland is being represented by ACLU Cooperating Attorney Leonard Mungo.

A copy of the complaint filed today is available here.