16 is OK but 18 is too many? That seems a little weird. And yeah, asking only the girls is rude. Shame about Casper quitting. Is she involved in anything else physical (dance/martial arts/wahtever)?

I have weird sunburn spots. They will fade into weird tan spots. Grrr.

On the rain barrel, my parents keep a bucket in the shower that they use to water stuff. They just empty it daily. It adds up when you aren't getting rain.

I think all the teams for the boys were divided by gender after the tiniest level. It could be because of the size of the schools. There are a couple hundred thousand kids in the school district. Most of the schools are huge.

eta: but his only asking the girls really pisses me off.

ITA

The school as a whole only has about 75 kids in the age range total, and many of the kids (boys and girls) have continued to play at their former schools (our school is a magnet and lots of kids arrive in 3rd or 4th grade), or play select soccer (like Casper's BFF.)

Ah -- I just wondered if there would be enough for a girls' team if that had been an option, but it sounds like no. You should definitely say something to the coach.

In that instance, the coach could have asked parents of every player on the team if any of them wanted to play on another team -- easy peasy. I would definitely say something.

Okay, how is this:

"I wanted to point out that, while I think Casper not playing is an okay solution for our family, I'm upset that only the girls were considered "problematic" in the situation of a a team with too many players - only the girls were asked to move to a team from another school. Casper's been playing on co-ed, mostly boys teams, for 3 seasons with League at School. For her the whole point of soccer is playing with her friends. Last spring she was asked to play down (because of her late birthday) to make up numbers so 2 teams could be fielded, she agreed, and she didn't like it. If there are 18 kids signed up at the Striker level and you can only play 16, why not ask ALL the kids if they'd be willing to play for another school, not just the girls? Why were the girls chosen to be the sacrifices to "solve the problem"? Isn't this the sort of thing that causes girls to leave sports in the first place? I'm disappointed in how this was handled."

In the Greater Salt Lake area, rain barrels are illegal. All Ur Rain Are Belong to Us, says the government, unless it's falling on the earth. No runoff can be collected.

If your district has a consent decree in place, flea, it might be a Title IX violation. If you wanted to go that route.

That's great, flea.

Grace failed her sleep study in February. I'm not sure what this means, but I'm pretty certain it's no good.

That's awesome, flea. Stand up!