LEBANON - The Lebanon Community School District has received a complaint alleging discrimination in the way it treats female athletes.

The district received the notice dated Nov. 10 from the Seattle branch of the national Office for Civil Rights. It alleges the district has violated the federal Title IX act in its treatment of equipment, supplies and practice facilities.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in all education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.

Department Administrator Dale Koger said the district is working with its attorney and trying to set up a conference call with the office for early December.

The Office for Civil Rights currently is investigating the case. No determination has been made on its merits. The complaintant has not been named.

Koger said he spoke with the specialist handling the case after receiving the notice and was told the complaint had to do with the Lebanon High School softball team.

"The substance of the complaint, when I talked to him the first time, centered around batting cages and fact that the boys baseball team had a hitting cage and the girls softball team did not," Koger said Wednesday. "It also included the fact the boys had been able to take a trip to play games in Arizona over spring break and the girls softball team had not. At that point, that's pretty much all he mentioned to me."

Koger said he did some research and contacted the office again. He said the baseball team had built its own batting cage but the district was in the process of building a second cage, and the baseball coach had said he was willing to split time with the girls until theirs was completed.

In addition, Koger said, he told the specialist, "The boys raised money on their own to take the trip. If the girls raise money, they can take a trip, certainly."

Koger said he then learned the scope of the complaint had expanded to include field conditions and lighting. The district is still researching field maintenance, he said, but is puzzled about the comment about lighting. The boys baseball field used to have lights, but the poles were taken down several years ago.

Athletic Director Rob Allen said the district mows both fields and puts out chalk lines for games. Any other maintenance is up to individual teams and parents.

Allen said the district began planning a second batting cage long before the complaint was received. Groundbreaking is scheduled for Monday.

The high school's softball program has seen a great deal of turnover in recent years. Coach Mike Larsen, who will start his second season with the team this spring, said he was aware of the complaint but had heard only about the batting cage portion.

"What I'm thinking is, since baseball has an all-weather batting facility, they figure softball should have one, too," said Larsen, who said he did not file the complaint.

He said he had not heard about anything related to lights or travel, but that he has no problem with the idea of softball raising its own funds for special trips.

"I don't want to take anything away from baseball. It doesn't mean softball can't (raise funds)," he said.