Wichita school board delays action over varsity athletic letter issue

Advocates for special-needs children urged Wichita school district leaders Monday to establish a policy requiring high schools to award varsity athletic letters to special-needs athletes.

Several left the school board meeting in tears, disappointed that board members took no action, and they vowed to continue their fight.

“I don’t understand why that policy would take more than a year to create,” said Jolinda Kelley, the mother of an East High School student who plays basketball on the school’s special-needs team.

“Several schools within this district already have something like this in place. I don’t get why East has to separate my children,” she said.

“We will continue with this movement that it has become. I will continue with this, to hold those involved accountable until a fair resolution is in place.”

The issue attracted national attention last week when Kelley said that her son Michael, a student at East High, was told about a year ago that he should not wear a jacket bearing a varsity letter she had purchased. District officials maintain no one asked him to remove the jacket, which he has since worn to school and school events without incident.

Currently, East High awards letters to students who participate on special-needs basketball and soccer teams, but the letter looks different from the one awarded to varsity athletes.

On Monday, the chairman of the Tri-County Sports League – which oversees teams of special-needs students from more than a dozen area schools – told board members the group is in the final stages of developing guidelines for eligibility, lettering and other issues and will present those to the board soon.

“I realize we move at a snail’s pace with some of this stuff,” said Bryan Wilson, chairman of the volunteer board. “But we’re trying to make it as legitimate and as formal as we can.”

Wilson said the league board plans to recommend that freshmen members of the league receive certificates of participation. Those in 10th grade and beyond would receive regular varsity letters – the same ones awarded to other athletes at the school – if they attend at least 70 percent of practices and games and exhibit good sportsmanship.

Wilson said the Tri-County letters should include some mark identifying them as part of the Tri-County league, “because that is powerful and that is important.”

School board president Sheril Logan said the board would wait for the formal recommendation from the Tri-County league before making any decisions.

Superintendent John Allison said the district does not have a policy regarding varsity letters. However, once the Tri-County league board formalizes its guidelines for eligibility, lettering and other issues, participating schools would abide by them, Allison said.

Similarly, schools that are part of the Greater Wichita Athletic League follow guidelines outlined in that league’s handbook.

Kelley and several others in the audience at the North High School lecture hall wore black T-shirts emblazoned with “#givethemletters,” the social media hashtag that has unified the movement in support of special-needs athletes.

“The national dialogue this incident has created is evidence that you need to quickly and definitively change your stance on this issue and provide an avenue for all special-needs athletes to earn the same varsity recognition as other students,” Kelley told board members.

Marvin Miller, whose middle-school daughter has Down syndrome, said special-needs athletes “are as much of an athlete as our East High state championship basketball team.”

“And so is the tuba player who is in the marching band on a hot field three hours a day,” Miller said.

Different lettering traditions may allow schools to celebrate their own traditions and diversity, he added.

“Are any of these policies intrinsically wrong? Only if that letter is used as a marker to promote exclusion,” he said. “If this is the case, then absolutely you must have a good, districtwide policy.”

Kelley said after the meeting that her 19-year-old son isn’t aware of the national attention his case has spurred.

“I’m telling Michael, ‘You get to mow the lawn today,’ ” Kelley said, smiling. “Last night he got two pieces of string cheese for his snack because that’s what he wanted.

“Michael is resilient, and he is a happy boy. He continues to be a happy boy and has no idea that this is affecting so many people.”

‘Horrible comments’

In a letter to the community posted on the school’s website late Sunday, East High School principal Ken Thiessen expressed frustration about “horrible comments from people who have no idea what East High is really all about.”

The story was picked up Friday by several national and international news sites and was trending on Twitter over the weekend. An online petition urging that special-needs athletes earn the same letter as varsity athletes had drawn more than 45,000 signatures by Monday morning.

“Suggesting that our school doesn’t support and embrace special-needs students is simply not reflective or indicative of the culture we have in our building,” Thiessen said. “Our administrators, our teachers and staff as well as our entire student body value all of our students.”

At Wichita high schools, the awarding of varsity athletic letters is guided by the Greater Wichita Athletic League. Its handbook outlines requirements for earning a varsity letter in various sports.

In basketball, for example, a student must earn 180 varsity points to earn a letter. Players earn seven points for each quarter they play and 20 points for playing in an invitational tournament. If a team wins a state championship, each player earns bonus points – seven points for each quarter of play.

The practice of awarding letters, pins or honor cords for other school-sponsored activities is at the discretion of each high school. Some schools award the same letter for every activity. Others, including East High, have different ones. The music letter at East, for example, is light blue and in the shape of a lyre.

“Each high school has the discretion to handle this differently, which is vital, because our high schools are all different in terms of student body, sports of participation, types of clubs, school traditions,” said district spokeswoman Wendy Johnson.

“Different schools may have different criteria … and that is guided by building decision.”

Wilson, the Tri-County league chairman, said he understands people’s strong feelings about the varsity letter issue, because “that letter represents an incredible amount of work and determination on the part of our athletes.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2015 at 9:53 AM with the headline "Wichita school board delays action over varsity athletic letter issue."