Wichita East student’s petition for special-needs student recognition draws more than 33,000 signatures

Should Wichita high schools award regular varsity letters to students who participate on a special-needs basketball or soccer team?

East High School senior Libby Hastings thinks so.

So far, an online petition she started at Change.org has drawn more than 33,000 signatures and will be presented to Wichita school board members Monday.

“They practice like we do. They work hard like we do. … I just feel like they deserve the same recognition,” said Hastings, who earned her varsity letter in soccer at East.

Hastings, 18, started the petition after a report on KSN-TV said a teacher at East High had told a boy with Down syndrome that he should not wear a jacket bearing a varsity letter the parents had purchased.

East High principal Ken Thiessen said Saturday that 19-year-old Michael Kelley “was never told to remove his jacket.”

“The incident, if you call it that, happened more than a year ago,” Thiessen said.

According to Thiessen, a teacher told Kelley’s mother, Jolinda Kelley, that her son shouldn’t wear an East High varsity letter because he had not participated on a varsity team. It was an isolated incident, and Michael Kelley has since worn the jacket at school events, Thiessen said.

The recent story drew international attention and has prompted supporters of special-needs children to lobby East High and the Wichita district to reconsider its policies.

Currently, students who participate on the special-needs basketball team at East High are awarded a letter, but it looks different from the one awarded to varsity athletes. Similarly, students lettering in fine arts programs, Junior ROTC or student leadership can earn letters, but they also look different from varsity letters.

For the past several months, in part at the urging of Jolinda Kelley, organizers of the Tri-County League have been exploring their policy regarding letters, Thiessen said.

The league includes basketball and soccer teams made up of special-needs high school athletes from Sedgwick, Butler and Sumner counties.

“I wholeheartedly support whatever that group decides to do, whichever direction they decide to go, and they are working on that,” Thiessen said.

Jolinda Kelley said Saturday that she stands by her original account of the situation, which occurred last school year: An East High staff member “removed Michael’s jacket and replaced it with a sweatshirt because he hadn’t ‘earned’ the varsity letter,” she said.

Saturday afternoon, Kelley read from a prepared statement and answered questions from media at the Sunrise Boundless Playscape at Sedgwick County Park, a playground designed for children with disabilities.

“This is not about a letterman’s jacket or a single student,” she said. “It’s about the school district creating a policy for all its schools that treats every student with the same level of equality and compassion.”

Kelley said special-needs students who participate on school-sponsored athletic teams should be awarded the same varsity letter that other basketball and soccer players get.

“While that opportunity exists in many schools throughout Kansas and even within USD 259, it does not exist at East High,” she said.

Kelley would not comment about why or where she bought her son the East High varsity letter or why he wears it instead of the letter he was awarded as part of the Tri-County League.

She stressed that special-needs athletes deserve the same emblem – a dark blue “W” with “East” embroidered in white capital letters – that varsity athletes receive.

“These students exhibit every positive trait and exert every bit of effort you’d want and expect from any traditional varsity athlete,” she said. “They take just as much pride in their accomplishments and their school, and they deserve the same recognition.”

Some East High students said their school and administrators are being criticized unfairly. The story about Michael Kelley’s letter jacket prompted a Twitter hashtag – #GiveThemLetters – which at one point was trending worldwide on Twitter.

“There’s a message out there that this is a school that hates special-needs kids, and that’s just insane,” said Jacob Wasson, a senior. “It’s just not true.”

Wasson, who lettered in theater and academics but not athletics, said he supports the effort to award varsity letters to special-needs athletes.

“There’s a legitimate concern. … I think (the letter policy) could be a little more organized and may need to be written down more plainly,” he said.

“This has started a dialogue that’s important. I just think the dialogue has gone a little too far.”

Hastings, who started the online petition, said she hopes school board members consider a district-wide letter policy and that athletes with special needs are allowed to earn the same letter she wears on her blue and white jacket.

“I don’t believe anyone should just be able to buy a letter and wear it, because it does symbolize something. You have to work for it,” she said.

“I wear mine because I’m proud of my achievement and I’m 100 percent proud of my school,” she said. “These (special-needs) kids deserve it as much as any of us – maybe more.”

This story was originally published March 28, 2015 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Wichita East student’s petition for special-needs student recognition draws more than 33,000 signatures."