Only in the South would something like this happen.
An Arkansas parent is suing her school district and the high school where her son attends classes simply because the lad was cut from the varsity basketball team.
Now, wait, you're saying. Why is this story coming out now, when high school hoops season ended two months ago or better for most kids?
Consider for a moment the judgment of the coaching staff at Maumelle High in Arkansas. After two preseason tryouts in August, they had their team. 10 out of the 11 players picked, including the son of our subject, were inexplicably cut in favor of players from the football team. No explanation.
Football players in other sports is fairly common at the high school level, especially at my alma mater, Troy High, where football players regularly will segue to basketball once the gridiron season is over. Some players will move on to other pursuits, such as hockey or baseball. As far as Teresa Bloodman is concerned, her son was wronged, and so she wants Maumelle High's coaching staff to explain themselves, claiming her son has a Constitutional right to participate in school sports.
What Mrs. Bloodman fails to comprehend is that while her son was good enough to make the team in summer tryouts, and bear in mind, the lad is a freshman who has three more years of eligibility left, time that could get flushed if mommy goes through with this frivolous litigation. I might add, the coaches still had three months before basketball season, time enough for some of the football players to ask in, and get their wishes granted.
Discrimination? Not a chance. It just happens to be business as usual. However, what gets Mrs. Bloodman a set of weasel ears is the hare-brained decision to file suit. She is doing this on her own, and hasn't gotten a whit of support from the parents of the other players who were cut the same way. It seems to me she is a stage parent who doesn't get it. No matter how talented your child is, he/she is not guaranteed a spot on a team just on your say so. The coaches have the last word, and if you don't like it, don't file a lawsuit. Pick up the phone and talk to the coach and hope for a straight answer. Even Judge Judy would tell you that.
5 comments:
Teresa Bloodman is a lawyer in Arkansas with way too much time on her hands. What a joke to the profession.
I don't believe there is a constitutional right to school sports to begin with, as the constitution deals with national issues, not local. It does seem patently unfair though, that kids who made the team are being cut in favor of kids who are already on another team. I mean, aren't we losing the whole point of what high school extracurricular activities is supposed to be about in the first place?
FourHillsFarm: Thank you for the information on Mrs. Bloodman. Business must be slow in her office for her to try something like this.
Crhymethinc: I agree that there isn't any constitutional right to athletic participation. What Mrs. Bloodman should be fighting against is the perception of political favoritism on the sports teams allowing for lateral movement at the expense of kids who already made the basketball team. The perception of her case is already clouded by her being perceived as a stage parent unhappy with the decision. She has no chance of winning her case. Not even Ben Matlock would try this one.
Not only in the south. In the NE this week, the wussy schools of New England banned booing in college soccer. I truly expect it to happen more in CA and the NE where liberalism is running out of control ;-)
And that ban, 6 1/2 years later, has probably been lifted.
Post a Comment