She wants to play varsity basketball at a neighboring school, like her male classmates. Her school board said no.

A Red Lake Falls family whose daughter was denied the chance to play basketball at a neighboring school where her male classmates play has filed a lawsuit accusing its school of sexual discrimination and violating Title IX.

Chris and Amy Nelson asked the Red Lake Falls school board to let their daughter play for Red Lake County Central High School’s varsity team, about 25 miles east, because Red Lake Falls didn’t have enough players for a girls varsity team the past two seasons.

The schools northeast of Crookston have co-op agreements to combine teams for boys sports, but the Red Lake Falls school board voted against a co-op for girls basketball.

“The co-op has been successful for the boys. Why are we not doing it for the girls?” said Central girls head basketball coach Mitch Bernstein, who is also the Red Lake County sheriff.

The Nelsons are seeking a court ruling allowing their daughter, a senior identified as S.N. in the lawsuit filed this month, to play immediately while the case is pending.

The dispute raises questions about parity in co-ops between high schools, which are formed mostly in rural areas. And it comes at a time when women’s basketball is rising in popularity. The WNBA is seeing record attendance and the NCAA championship last year was the most-watched women’s basketball game of all time.

In the small communities of Red Lake Falls and Oklee, where Central school is located, Bernstein said the controversy has been “blowing up on social media,” with a hashtag #letherplay.

School board members, superintendents and activities directors at both schools either declined or did not respond to requests for comment.

S.N. scored her 1,000th point her sophomore year, he said, after playing varsity in eighth, ninth and 10th grades for Red Lake Falls before the team dissolved without enough players.

“Our daughter has worked for years toward her dream of playing college basketball,” the Nelsons said in a statement. “Last season, when she was denied the chance to play varsity basketball on the cooperative team, she was heartbroken.”

Red Lake Falls and Central have a long history of co-ops for boys sports.

It first combined boys basketball teams in 2007. The schools also co-op for football and baseball, with the boys winning their first baseball championship in June.

The Minnesota State High School League said in an email to the Minnesota Star Tribune that “the decision to engage in a cooperative agreement is at the discretion of the school boards and administration of the member schools creating the co-op and is subject to approval by the League.”

The Red Lake Falls school board voted against co-oping for girls varsity basketball in 2023. The vote was split along gender lines, with four men against the co-op and three women in favor.

“I felt it was unfair,” said Bernstein, who went before the board to address parity issues when the Nelsons first asked about their daughter playing for Central.

“The boys were given a much better opportunity to compete at a higher level than our girls. ... The main point of Title IX is that girls should have the same opportunities presented to them as boys do. And I feel in this situation, that’s not the case.”

Title IX is a federal law prohibiting gender discrimination in education programs.

Last month, the activities director for Red Lake Falls emailed the school board asking them to let S.N. play at Central. The Nelsons’ attorney also sent a letter demanding they allow S.N. to play or face litigation.

“After trying every possible way to resolve the situation, we finally had no choice but to take legal action so our daughter could have the same opportunity as her peers,” the Nelsons said in a statement.

Red Lake Falls Superintendent Tony Greene said in a Nov. 17 sworn statement to U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell that Central agreed to a girls basketball co-op if the districts also entered into co-ops for volleyball and softball.

Greene included texts between him and the Central school board chair from the summer saying “our ultimate goal would be all girls sports combined at 50/50 at sometime in the future.”

He also cited transportation costs and said a co-op would disrupt the existing Red Lake Falls girls junior varsity team.

The Nelsons’ attorney, Tom Wieser, said S.N. shouldn’t be used as a pawn determining the future of all girls sports co-ops.

“We all know that girls basketball is exploding,” Wieser said. “So to try to throw a wrench in S.N.’s ability to participate in competitive varsity level basketball for the season just seems unnecessary.”