Am I reading this right ?

[DonnieS]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... s/1862105/

White House: Schools must open sports to disabled


Greg Toppo USA TODAY12:19a.m. EST January 25, 2013



Eric Dompierre




Story Highlights
Letter requires schools to provide 'reasonable modifications' to disabled students.
Schools can still pick most qualified students for competitive teams
Move welcomed by advocates

The Obama administration for the first time is telling school districts across the USA that they must give disabled students equal access to extracurricular sports, a move that advocates say has been years in the making.

In a letter to schools due out Friday, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Seth Galanter of the Department of Education says schools should provide "reasonable modifications" to allow disabled students to participate – for instance, providing a deaf track athlete with a flashing light that goes off simultaneously with the starter pistol that others hear.

He said schools don't have to radically alter games or stop choosing the most qualified athletes for competitive teams. They can look to "allied" or "unified" sports teams, in which students with disabilities participate with students without them. Schools can't deny a disabled student a slot on a sports team because a coach believes he can't compete.

Schools that don't comply risk losing federal funding, but civil rights cases rarely get that far.

"We think it's huge," said Kirk Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA, a national non-profit group established by Vietnam veterans that offers sports rehabilitation programs to anyone with a permanent disability.

He said 12 states require school sports programs to accommodate disabled students. Now, he said, other administrators "will start focusing on ways to provide those opportunities" to students who have a disability.

"It's really affording them access to terrific social situations that will hopefully break down some of the barriers and discrimination we've seen in the past," said Lindsay Jones of the Council for Exceptional Children, a national advocacy group.

The letter comes two-and-a-half years after a 2010 Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation that found students with disabilities participated in athletics "at consistently lower rates than students without disabilities." The report was historic, disabilities rights advocates say, because for the first time it put firm statistics behind what they'd been saying for years.

"We've definitely been waiting for it – we're excited to see it," Jones said. Friday's letter represents "a big change and a very positive one" for disabled students, she said. Though they've been integrated more than ever in other areas of school life, Jones said, "this has been an area that they've not been as included."
She and Bauer said a key development was the case of Tatyana McFadden, a Maryland wheelchair athlete who competed in the 2004 Paralympics games in Athens but who had to file a lawsuit to get a spot on her high school track team. McFadden went on to win medals in both the 2008 and 2012 games. Her case spurred interest from lawmakers, who asked the GAO to investigate.

The June 2010 report said the Obama administration had given schools "little information or guidance on (physical education) or extracurricular athletics for students with disabilities."

"The GAO found that schools needed more clarity on the issue, and so this is intended to provide that clarity," Galanter said in an interview.

Bauer said many disabled students, frustrated at the lack of opportunities in school, join private after-school sports clubs. "Parents are coming to them saying, 'My kid doesn't have any opportunity in the schools to participate in sports or to compete, so we come here to do this.' That's what Tatyana was doing. She was basically treated as sort of an add-on, and she didn't like that – and she knew how good she was."

[GIMNEPIWO]

Is this a bad thing ?

[DonnieS]

Is this a bad thing ?

G, if you had just set up your team for the season, and a guy comes in with a sweet little kid with MS, on a rolling walker, and you have to put the kid on the varsity - and you have to play her. When I coached rec league, and then coached the school supported league, this happened to me everytime I had a team, the reason , they knew I would not complain, and I would actually encourage and play the kid. But as I read this, you as a varsity high school coach, would be required to put the kid on your varsity team, and possibly even start her - equal to all the other kids.

Life, as we both know, isn't fair. That's the way it is. There are leagues for special needs kids - and the line in the article that said that parents get tired of their kids not being treated fairly in high school and pay to put them on a select team, is typical lying bullshit.

If I read this article , we need to reduce the competition in competitive sports so that special kids can compete with non-special needs kids. That's wrong. I have a special needs grand daughter - my daughter and I find things that she can compete it and do well. That's what good parents do - not lower the competition of everyone else.

[PDad]

It seems to contradict itself...

He said schools don't have to radically alter games or stop choosing the most qualified athletes for competitive teams. They can look to "allied" or "unified" sports teams, in which students with disabilities participate with students without them. Schools can't deny a disabled student a slot on a sports team because a coach believes he can't compete.

I hope what they're saying is the coach has to give them an opportunity to demonstrate their ability before they can cut them as not being one of the most qualified.

I looked up the Tatyana McFadden case. They filed suit because the HS was holding wheelchair events in the regular track meet for her, but she wasn't happy going alone because there wasn't anyone to compete against. The school was forced to allow her to compete in regular track events with her wheelchair against runners. The Maryland HS sports org ended up passing a rule that she couldn't earn points for the team.

[as the world turns]

I would not expect anything different coming from the G-man, he sees not nothing wrong with current Obama America, in fact, butterflies are coming out of his ass.

This will allow lawyers to sue every organzation THEY feel are discriminating. Teams will not dare cut a kid that comes out in a wheelchair for the fear of getting sued.

This makes as much sense as having the braille pad on the drive-up ATM window.

[fastpitchdad05]

I would not expect anything different coming from the G-man, he sees not nothing wrong with current Obama America, in fact, butterflies are coming out of his ass.

This will allow lawyers to sue every organzation THEY feel are discriminating. Teams will not dare cut a kid that comes out in a wheelchair for the fear of getting sued.

This makes as much sense as having the braille pad on the drive-up ATM window.

Maybe you're right about G not seeing anything wrong.

If it's true it's no worse than seeing nothing right either.

Either way there are blinders on with the eyes and the mind closed.

[as the world turns]

I would not expect anything different coming from the G-man, he sees not nothing wrong with current Obama America, in fact, butterflies are coming out of his ass.

This will allow lawyers to sue every organzation THEY feel are discriminating. Teams will not dare cut a kid that comes out in a wheelchair for the fear of getting sued.

This makes as much sense as having the braille pad on the drive-up ATM window.

Maybe you're right about G not seeing anything wrong.

If it's true it's no worse than seeing nothing right either.

Either way there are blinders on with the eyes and the mind closed.

Damn boy, where you've been? I thought maybe you were auditioning for THEVIEW, they are getting rid of Elisabeth Hasselbeck because she disagrees with all the libs on the show. They want to replace her with someone that is submissive to Whoopi and naturally I thought you would be perfect for the spot.

[Trophy Hunter]

First hard-throwing blind kid comes out for the team, I'm letting her pitch. "Mowin' 'em down" will take on a whole new meaning.

[fastpitchdad05]

I would not expect anything different coming from the G-man, he sees not nothing wrong with current Obama America, in fact, butterflies are coming out of his ass.

This will allow lawyers to sue every organzation THEY feel are discriminating. Teams will not dare cut a kid that comes out in a wheelchair for the fear of getting sued.

This makes as much sense as having the braille pad on the drive-up ATM window.

Maybe you're right about G not seeing anything wrong.

If it's true it's no worse than seeing nothing right either.

Either way there are blinders on with the eyes and the mind closed.

Damn boy, where you've been? I thought maybe you were auditioning for THEVIEW, they are getting rid of Elisabeth Hasselbeck because she disagrees with all the libs on the show. They want to replace her with someone that is submissive to Whoopi and naturally I thought you would be perfect for the spot.

Ah...did you miss me?

[GIMNEPIWO]

I would not expect anything different coming from the G-man, he sees not nothing wrong with current Obama America, in fact, butterflies are coming out of his ass.

This will allow lawyers to sue every organzation THEY feel are discriminating. Teams will not dare cut a kid that comes out in a wheelchair for the fear of getting sued.

This makes as much sense as having the braille pad on the drive-up ATM window.

How you get that out if allowing a disabled kid to try out for a HS team is beyond me ... In Virginia, anyone can try out as long as they have mt the requirments ; grades, transfer regs, age etc. ... School I was at last year had a girl on Varsity that had a physical handicap ... She made the team, she started, not because she was disabled ... I can imagine there are coaches who wouldn't even look at her because one leg was half the size as the other ... How about your daughter ? ... Maybe she is not allowed to try out because she is Hispanic, short, heavy, one arm ? You know your daughter can play with one arm, but the coach won't allow her to try out ... I read nothing in there that says they have to make the team or have to play if they do make the team ... I read that they deserve a fair shot - If that means of got butterflies coming out of my ass, so be it ... Better that than a stick shoved up it ....

Braille pads are on drive up ATM's because it's cheaper for the manufacturer to make one key pad for all their machines ... And some blind people do walk and actually have and spend money just like you ...