A bill has been introduced at the State House that would prohibit a school from being banned from sports activities for forfeiting a game.
H.660, “An act relating to youth sports in Vermont,” was introduced Friday by House Rep. Art Peterson, R-Clarendon, and referred to the House Committee on Education.
The bill also proposed the creation of two study committees — one for school sports, the other for youth sports — that would study why some schools do better than others in athletics.
“That’s pretty much why I came up with that type of thing,” said Peterson on Monday. “It needs to be looked at. Because some schools and teams do well every year and some do poorly every year, and there’s got to be a reason for it, and that’s what this would try to get to.”
The first part of the bill, the part preventing a school from being banned from activities should it forfeit a game, stems from the controversy surrounding Mid Vermont Christian School in Quechee.
In March, the Vermont Principals’ Association Executive Council deemed Mid Vermont Christian School — a private Christian school — to be ineligible to participate in VPA activities after it forfeited a basketball game against Long Trail School because that school had a trans player on its team. According to the council, the forfeiture and the rationale behind it violated VPA policies, which are written in accordance with state law.
The situation made national news, with CNN reporting in November that the VPA, among others, had been sued in federal court by Mid Vermont Christian School.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, names officials with the Vermont Agency of Education, Vermont State Board of Education, Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union, Orange East Supervisory Union, Waits River Valley (Unified #36 Elementary) School Board, and the VPA as defendants with Mid Vermont Christian School on behalf of several students and their families, as plaintiffs.
“The State of Vermont is being sued over it, so I mean, it’s something I think we need to correct and address when an organization tells a school because they forfeit a game they can’t play any more sports ever, that’s pretty harsh,” said Peterson.
He claims his bill doesn’t eliminate the VPA’s ability to sanction schools.
“It doesn’t say there can’t be punishment, it doesn’t say that something couldn’t or shouldn’t be done, but it does say that because a team forfeits, you can’t take every athletic event away from that school, that’s what it does,” said Peterson.
Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, is chair of the House Committee on Education. He stated in an email Monday that the committee just received the bill and that no one has had a chance to read it yet.
Peterson said he doesn’t know whether the committee will take the bill up. He said they might be enticed by the second piece of it, that being the proposed study committees. It’s common for proposed bills to lose parts as they go through the legislative process.
The second part of Peterson’s bill proposed the creation of the Vermont Interscholastic Sports Study Committee “to study the oversight of high school athletics in Vermont and propose alternative models of delivery and oversight.” This committee would sit 14 members, ideally representing all of Vermont’s 14 counties, and consist of the VPA, athletic directors from Division I-IV schools, and men’s and women’s coaches from each division. The committee would be tasked with creating recommendations for a range of things related to interscholastic sports like standards for coaches and athletes to the Agency of Education’s role in making rules for high school sports.
The bill would also create the “Vermont Interscholastic Sports Study Committee” that would “study the oversight of high school athletics in Vermont and propose alternative models of delivery and oversight.”
That committee also would have 14 members but would include the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, seven recreation directors from towns with youth programs, and seven volunteer coaches. It would gather data and issue a report with recommendations much like the Vermont Interscholastic Sports Study Committee.
Mid Vermont Christian School did not respond to a request for comment.
“Much of what is in the bill essentially already exists,” stated Jay Nichols, VPA executive director, in an email Tuesday. “Member schools already have input (in fact they make the decisions). We have committees for each sport and an Activity Standards Committee that is made up of principals and athletic directors that make final decisions on sports and extracurricular activities issues. These individuals are all volunteers.”
He stated that the VPA doesn’t “ban” schools.
“The only way a school would be banned would be if they failed and refused to follow state law and the policies that our member schools agree to as a condition of membership,” Nichols stated. “As long as a school agrees to follow the rules and the law they would not get banned. Schools can forfeit a game based on their circumstances — it happens all the time. They just can’t forfeit for a discriminatory or unlawful reason.”
A school forfeiting a game isn’t inherently a reason for sanctions, he stated.
“What my school can’t do is say we are not going to play your school because your school contains students that we think we should not have to play against ... for example, students that have disabilities, students that are a different religion than my school, students that are of a different natural origin etc.” he stated. “You get to control your team; you don’t have a say over the makeup of the team you are playing as long as they are following the rules in Vermont law.”
He stated that Peterson’s bill, as he understands it, would allow any school to discriminate against students on another team by refusing to play them.
As for the rest of Peterson’s bill, Nichols stated that some attention to issues surrounding youth sports could be a good thing.
“I worry about the cost of youth sports for some parents and feel that many kids are losing access because they can’t afford some youth programs,” he stated.
In the last session, Peterson introduced H.513, “An act relating to protecting the competitive integrity and safety of girls and women in sports,” which would prohibit trans women and girls from playing in elementary, secondary, or postsecondary school sports designated for women. It was referred to the House Committee on Education last April and hasn’t moved since. Peterson said at the time that he did not expect the bill to be taken up.
keith.whitcomb
@rutlandherald.com
