A nearby SSPX school gets some bad press for refusing to allow a woman to referee a basketball game.

Before the game started, a school administrator approached Campbell’s officiating partner, Darin Putthoff of Topeka, and told him a woman could not serve as referee.

That would be putting a woman in a position of authority over boys, he was told — a scenario that was contrary to beliefs at St. Mary’s Academy.

“I was upset,” Putthoff said. “So I said, ‘You’re telling me you don’t have any teachers at the school who are women?’”

It is true that St. Mary’s Academy does have women teaching boys.  Clearly the arena of sport is not one of the acceptable areas for males and females to mix.

I’m not sure how to comment on this. You have an obvious inculturation issue … on both sides. Schismatic teens will soon be living in a culture that no longer honors the value of women not being involved in sport. As young adults, will they walk off the athletic field if their college or company team is being refereed by someone of the opposite gender?

I do feel a thin slice of sympathy, as I would for Muslims or the Amish attempting to live their values in a predominantly Western culture. But what probably sinks my opinion of St Mary’s would be their hypocrisy in putting women teachers “over” male students in the school setting. Sport is optional, but education is much higher on the priority list–as it should be. I’d get that thin slice back if the teachers were segregated, too. As it is, I think it skirts the boundary of misogyny.

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