The New Jersey seventh-grader whose family sued the Catholic school that refused to let her play basketball on the boys team was abruptly expelled from her middle school Wednesday.
The parents of 12-year-old Sydney Phillips were sent a letter from an Archdiocese of Newark lawyer saying that both Sydney and her sister Kaitlyn should not attend St. Theresa “tomorrow morning or any day thereafter.”
“I’m furious,” the girls’ dad, Scott Phillips, said Wednesday night. “This is unbelievable. We just wanted her to play basketball.”
The Phillips family was hoping Sydney would be able to play with the boys after the girls team was disbanded last school year.
When the Kenilworth school nixed that idea, her dad took legal action against the archdiocese and St. Theresa.
Apparently the school charter maintains that it can boot a student whose family brings a suit against it.
The Phillips family learned of the shocking decision at a training facility for the WNBA’s New York Liberty, where Sydney had been invited to watch the professional women’s team practice.
“I am disgusted. How dare them? What did Katy do? What did Sydney do?” Scott asked. “I don’t know what we’re going to do next, but we’re still going to fight.”
Last month, a New Jersey judge denied Sydney’s request to force St. Theresa to let her play, claiming there was just not enough evidence to upend the “status quo.”
The school reportedly is protected from bias claims because of its religious status.
However, the family filed an appeal that claims the archdiocese’s athletic leagues are actually governed by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.
The rules for that association clearly state that girls should be allowed to try out for a boys team when there’s no comparable girls team.
However, an association spokesperson told The Post that the ruling applies only to high school students.
A lawyer for the archdiocese did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday night.