A group of parents of home-schooled wrestlers has filed a $7.7 million lawsuit against the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association and two of its officials, claiming they discriminated against their children by not allowing them to compete against Maryland public schools.
Carlos Sandoval, an attorney who is the wrestling coach at Progressive Christian School in Temple Hills, filed the suit on behalf of nine parents Monday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. The suit seeks punitive damages plus associated fees and asks for a permanent injunction to prevent the MPSSAA from applying its rules to teams that have home-schooled athletes.
MPSSAA Executive Director Ned Sparks and Montgomery County supervisor of athletics William "Duke" Beattie, director of the MPSSAA wrestling committee, are named as co-defendants.
The lawsuit, reported in yesterday's Baltimore Sun, stems from this past January, when Progressive Christian's wrestling team had to be removed from a tournament because many of the field's other teams were public schools. According to MPSSAA guidelines, member schools are allowed to compete only against teams whose athletes are enrolled at their school and of high school age. Of Progressive Christian's 16 wrestlers, 11 were home-schooled, according to Sandoval.
"Everything we do, we're coming at it from an educational view, people representing their school," Sparks said. "Everything we do has to be traced back and asked, is this educationally sound? That's why we have some rules some people think are restrictive or silly."
Beattie declined to comment.
Although 14 states permit home-schoolers to participate in athletics at public schools, most states have guidelines similar to Maryland, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association. The Virginia High School League and D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association, however, permit their schools to compete against teams with home-schooled athletes, according to officials from both organizations.
"No court thus far has recognized any right for home-schoolers to participate," HSLDA senior counsel Chris Klicka said. "It's not considered discriminatory because they can participate. They just have to enroll at public schools."
Sandoval alleged the MPSSAA administers rules in a discriminatory fashion because other private schools without home-schoolers are allowed to compete against MPSSAA members even though those schools do not follow MPSSAA guidelines.
"The MPSSAA has rules of how far a member school can travel [for a game] or when they can start practice, but look at schools like DeMatha, Gonzaga and Georgetown Prep," Sandoval said. "They travel where ever they want, but when they want to compete against member schools, [their right to compete] hasn't been affected."
Another school affected by the MPSSAA's rule is Riverdale Baptist, which has home-schoolers on several of its athletic teams. This past winter, Michael Beasley, a star on the Crusaders basketball team, was held out of seven games against public schools because he is home-schooled.
"I think [home-schoolers] should be able to [compete against public school teams] but if that's the guidelines, we have to go by it until something changes," Riverdale Baptist Athletic Director Terry Terrill said.
Sparks declined to address the specifics of this suit, but reiterated the MPSSAA's concerns that members compete only against school teams.
"If you had a school and then go out and get some other guys, is that still a school team?" Sparks said. " "Our regulations are only for our schools. . . . [Non-member schools] can do what they want to do. We have no jurisdiction or authority over what they do."
