Pregnancy Discrimination on the Court

Pregnancy Discrimination on the Court

            In Fort Worth, Texas a senior’s worst dream had come true.  She had become pregnant and the dad was not in the picture. Mackenzie McCollum had a lot going on in her life she was a: musician, honor student, community volunteer and finally the varsity volleyball setter.  Mackenzie never came off the court she was one of the team’s best players.  When most teenage girls become pregnant they drop out of everything and do as little as possible besides being pregnant and trying to deal with that.  Mackenzie was different though she wanted to fight and stay on the court and finish her senior season, but with this description came discrimination that she never thought would come.  With her Christian faith it put the talk of abortions to rest and now it was just about having this baby. Also doing what she had to do to gradate and play volleyball. To remain on the team she had to go to a doctor and get cleared to play.  With the great news of being cleared came the start of the first of the controversies.  With her absence from the court until she got cleared her team mates wondered where she was.  She had keep her pregnancy a secret form everyone and didn’t want anyone to know about it, this way no one would treat her different. At a team meeting during her absences the coach received many of questions about where she was. Instead of keeping it to himself he told the whole team and violated student privacy policies.  That day after practice Mackenzie received text from all her teammates asking about her pregnancy.  Even being back on the team it wasn’t the same.  Her coach had cut her time and had tried to tell her it wasn’t because she was pregnant but she knew it was. She believed that he had done it fearing what over schools and teams would think of the school having a pregnant volleyball player.  This whole thing bothered her so much that she almost terminated the pregnancy. This controversy was not over,  after the season Mackenzie’s mother and her fought the school on their polices about pregnant athletes. They wanted this rule to change, that way no one would ever have to go through what she had too.  As Mackenzie’s Mother said it best “just because your pregnant doesn’t mean life is finished and over and you should sit at home and eat bon bon’s and watch soup operas and keep your feet up.”

This story can represent a couple of the theories but I am going to talk about how this fits with the fundamentalist theory.  Mackenzie is a girl who made a bad choice as many high school girls have done and became pregnant. She fought though it and fought to stay on the volleyball team the one thing that she loved the most. She has set a new standard for pregnant athletes and discrimination against them.  This story can be inspiring to many young girls out there who have made a bad choice but yet with this story they can fight though it and be successful like Mackenzie.