Topeka ? The Kansas State High School Activities Association’s executive committee has approved two proposals to prevent its member and approved schools from discriminating against sports officials.

Tuesday’s proposals were in response to St. Mary’s Academy near Topeka refusing to allow official Michelle Campbell to work a boys basketball game last month because she was a woman.

The nine-member board unanimously approved proposals to add a position statement to its handbook and a rule requiring member schools to accept qualified officials regardless of race, gender or any other factor that could be construed as discriminatory.

The rule also would be added to the application forms for approved schools, which aren’t KHSAA members but can use its officials.

The flap started on Feb. 2, when officials at St. Mary’s Academy, a Catholic school, told Campbell she wouldn’t be allowed to officiate a boys basketball game because of her gender. The controversy caught national attention, with Campbell becoming the center of a media whirlwind and St. Mary’s the target of women’s groups and newspaper editorials.

It also made KSHSAA officials take a harder look at their handbook, which had no provisions preventing the discrimination of officials.