Ark. mother sues district, state for constitutional violation after son cut from team

[jimnyc]

I can see being angry for the kid getting cut/replaced, but a constitutional violation?

An Arkansas mother has sued her son's high school for cutting her son from the school's varsity basketball team, claiming that he was deprived the right of a full education because he was not allowed to take part in school athletics.

As reported by Arkansas Matters and USA Today, among other sources, Teresa Bloodman, the mother of a Maumelle (Ark.) High freshman, filed suit against the school, district and state after her son was replaced on the school's basketball team following a third set of tryouts for the team that re-incorporated members of the school's football team.

Bloodman's son, who is a minor and was not named in the suit, spent two months as part of the team after qualifying through two tryouts in August only to be replaced three months later by a member of the football team, as were nine of the team's 11 original players.

While those replacements might stoke claims of favoritism, the lawsuit filed by Bloodman goes much further, claiming that her son has a constitutional right to participate in school sports, as you can read in the excerpt from the suit directly below.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highsc...113537254.html

[Howard Roark]

Yep...highschool sports. Nothing fair about it.

But a freekin lawsuit?

[jimnyc]

Yep...highschool sports. Nothing fair about it.

But a freekin lawsuit?

People tend to go a little overboard about their kids. I'd be upset if my kid was cut too, but I would hardly call it a constitutional violation. Maybe make a complaint with the school, or the district, but this, IMO, is going too far.

[Howard Roark]

People tend to go a little overboard about their kids. I'd be upset if my kid was cut too, but I would hardly call it a constitutional violation. Maybe make a complaint with the school, or the district, but this, IMO, is going too far.

Way back in the days of highschool, I had a similar thing happen. I got cut from baseball tryouts so that the coach could put one of his football players in my position. This guy couldn't come close to my ability.

I learned how it works, and chose to avoid the bullshit in the future. Never tried out again.

No big deal. That crap is common in school sports...moreso in smaller towns.

[Kathianne]

Way back in the days of highschool, I had a similar thing happen. I got cut from baseball tryouts so that the coach could put one of his football players in my position. This guy couldn't come close to my ability.

I learned how it works, and chose to avoid the bullshit in the future. Never tried out again.

No big deal. That crap is common in school sports...moreso in smaller towns.

Yep, the issue is often the coach(es). My son was a premo soccer player from 3rd-8th grade. In the middle of 8th grade season, he blew out both knees. Went to sports doc/ortho, he could still play soccer, but was not going to develop into an all-stater. He loves the game still and had every intention of playing in high school. Then he was told by some of the middle school team mates, that the HS coach would drop seniors, to ready the freshmen.

A skeptic since birth, he signed up for the summer soccer camp at school. When he was registering, some cross country players came up to him and said they'd scouted him from middle school soccer and track, why not come to the cross country camp too? So he signed up for both. Through the camps he recognized the soccer coach was kissing up to the freshmen and he had a real great experience with both the cross country coach and assistant. The cohesiveness of the team also was a big sway. One of the juniors hearing about how the middle school had screwed up his math placement and now he had to go to the junior college that summer to take Alg I, so that he could enter into math honors program. He told him he'd be glad to tutor him any time there was something he was 'missing' by a condensed course. He kept his word, (yes, the 'tutor' is now an engineer). The son did make All-State with cross country. He did fine at track too.

[Mr. P]

Good example of why we need a "loser pays (all costs of the defendant) system". Frivolous shit like this would vanish.

Money talks and no Attorney knowing that if they lose because they have no case wouldn't get payed would file such crap. They file this frivolous stuff now because most deep pocket defendants settle just to avoid outrageous legal costs for a defense, it's the cheapest solution not an admission. It's nothing more than a shakedown. IMO

Of course the court can throw this sort of thing out, but how many times does that happen?

[Howard Roark]

Yep, the issue is often the coach(es). My son was a premo soccer player from 3rd-8th grade. In the middle of 8th grade season, he blew out both knees. Went to sports doc/ortho, he could still play soccer, but was not going to develop into an all-stater. He loves the game still and had every intention of playing in high school. Then he was told by some of the middle school team mates, that the HS coach would drop seniors, to ready the freshmen.

A skeptic since birth, he signed up for the summer soccer camp at school. When he was registering, some cross country players came up to him and said they'd scouted him from middle school soccer and track, why not come to the cross country camp too? So he signed up for both. Through the camps he recognized the soccer coach was kissing up to the freshmen and he had a real great experience with both the cross country coach and assistant. The cohesiveness of the team also was a big sway. One of the juniors hearing about how the middle school had screwed up his math placement and now he had to go to the junior college that summer to take Alg I, so that he could enter into math honors program. He told him he'd be glad to tutor him any time there was something he was 'missing' by a condensed course. He kept his word, (yes, the 'tutor' is now an engineer). The son did make All-State with cross country. He did fine at track too.

Odd... I had a similar situation. My son was a pretty good soccer player from the youth soccer league. As soon as he got into middle school, he tried out. He was clearly better than at least 4 overweight players he got cut for.

One was the son of the mechanic who fixes the coaches car. Another was the son of a guy who knew the coach, and complained that his son got cut. (I coached both these kids in little league)

I attended a practice, and watched the kids who made the team over him. It was a bit of a joke. My son was upset, but I had a talk with him.

I explained about school sports. It's rarely fair, but it IS a good lesson on life.

So...he joined track. Sound familiar? He did great. He was never big on competition, and track was perfect because he was competing with himself. As he excelled, he gained confidence.

He continued through highschool, and is now teaching in that school...and coaching track.








Did I mention he was the valedictorian? (blush)

[ConHog]

I can see being angry for the kid getting cut/replaced, but a constitutional violation?



http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highsc...113537254.html

Maumelle is full of idiots, this lawsuit proves it.

I agree with others, this is where loser pays should come into play; either that or this dumb bitch should just have her stupid ass kicked.