BALTIMORE, Ohio — An Ohio school district is refusing to let a seventh-grade girl play football, prompting requests that the board change its policies on female athletes.

Makhaela Jenkins has played youth football around Baltimore, southeast of Columbus, but isn’t allowed on the active roster for her school team because the district doesn’t allow girls to participate in games and contact drills.

Liberty Union-Thurston District superintendent Paul Mathews said the longstanding policy doesn’t violate any gender-related regulations, because the district offers girls other, non-contact athletics.

“We are not violating Title IX,” Mathews told WTTE-TV in Columbus, referring to the federal law that bans gender discrimination in federally funded school programs, including sports. “We have opportunities for girls, but those opportunities do not include contact sports.”

He said it’s the district’s choice to set which school sports are available to girls.

“We think we have plenty of places for everyone to fit in, but it is simply a choice,” Mathews said.