For centuries, school districts in the United States have been foolishly naming women’s sports teams differently than the men’s teams. Often, gender titles such as “lady” or “female” may be used to signify that the specific team is a women’s team, almost always not including an equivalent for the men’s teams. Our school’s policy of naming the sports teams “lady knights” is outdated, sexist, and does not follow societal norms that have recently begun to change.

Each year, millions of female students compete in sports. Many districts have adopted a sexist policy to discriminate against female teams, signifying that they consider the men’s teams to be more superior than the women’s. Male sports teams at FHN do not have an equivalent title before their team names.

All sports players at FHN are Knights, not just some. Yet, our school continues to label the women’s teams as if they are not. Thankfully, some schools are attempting to dissolve the dated trend.

“It is not something that we officially do here. We are trying to move away from it,” Activities Director Mike Janes, who has been working at FHN for almost 18 years said.

Many could argue that the reason for the name change is to distinguish between the two different sports teams. But, if the school districts insisted on this philosophy, a label for the boys sports teams would be added as well.

Society is changing and the public school system in the United States needs to change along with it. Removing titles such as “lady” and “female” will help take strides towards the gender equality that should be pushed in our schools.

“It is just sports, I like them all to be the knights like they are,” Janes said.