Home-schoolers ruled out-of-bounds for sports

[beaverbaseball 10]

Home-schoolers ruled out-of-bounds for sports

Posted: Thursday, Jul 21, 2005 - 01:15:31 am EDT

By TOM BONE

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

 

 

 

 

BLUEFIELD - Home-schooled students in West Virginia will be unable to play sports for a nearby school in the upcoming year, but the effect should be very small locally - unless, say, you are a home-schooled teenager who can throw a baseball around 90 miles an hour.

 

A decision filed July 6 by the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled in favor of the governing body for interscholastic sports, the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (SSAC), and against a home-schooled student and his parents.

 

The SSAC created the requirement that a student must be enrolled full-time at a school to play sports there. State law defines a full instructional day as 345 minutes daily in grades 9-12.

 

At Mercer Christian Academy, new Director of Development Jamie Huffman said the students participating in its athletic program attend at least the minimum amount of time required.

 

 

 

"It wouldn't affect any of our students who're playing here now," Huffman said Wednesday.

 

The SSAC requirement was challenged by a Marion County couple whose son Aaron Jones was home-schooled but wanted to be on a local school's wrestling team.

 

Although a Kanawha County circuit court ruling went in their favor, the Supreme Court reversed it.

 

The state's high court noted that the legislature had constitutionally given the SSAC the power "to exercise the control, supervision and regulation of interscholastic athletic events and band activities of secondary schools."

 

The court said further that the commission did not violate any "equal protection" standard by targeting home-schooled students. It cited a 1982 ruling which said that such students "forego the privileges incidental" to attending a public school - including sports.

 

Private schools, including faith-based academies, may choose whether or not to abide by SSAC standards and therefore be eligible to compete in state tournaments sanctioned by the governing body.

 

Mercer Christian Academy does participate as an SSAC school.

 

One of the state's prep basketball powers, Mount de Chantal, does not.

 

 

 

 

 

What are some of your opinions on home school kids playing sports?

[Bluefield_Rules 46]

This was heatedly debated over at TSP when the decision was announced last week. I think that it's the right decision and am glad the court made the ruling that they did.

[buzzsawBeaver 12]

I disagree with this in a big way, there's no legit reasons to stop them from doing something positive, education is about the grades, and home schoolers commonly do much better with national test scores. Those standards surpassed, they shouldn't care the method the youths achieved those scores, in fact seems that in today's world where there's so many critics of the wrong paths, you'd think adults would applaud the fact that youths achieved, and encourage other participation in a positive way.

If they really think the problem is with those who abuse the system for sports, that's the few who are "in" the public schools ruining an opportunity for the legit home schoolers. Punish or stop those, who are in the minority anyhow, not the good.

 

I don't see it any differently than the transfer rules I disagree about as well, no reason to make this law, there's enough restriction of freedoms and laws about what a person can't do. Are their flaws with home schoolers participating in school sports, likely. But tell me a system where there are no flaws. The answers to flaws certainly isn't restriction of the whole of a situation. If that's the real case where do they stop restricting things?

Answer is they really don't. In time people will step back and question "how did we forfeight so much and how did we become so controlled?"

Laws like this whittle away at things till the day comes and make no mistake about it, is coming, when it won't be a matter of what people can't do, it will be a matter of what people "can do".