5 private schools sue OSSAA, calling Rule 14 'unconstitutional' and asking it be voided
Five private high schools sued the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association on Thursday, claiming the OSSAA's Rule 14 — which the organization has said aims to create competitive balance between public and private schools in athletics — is unconstitutional and should be voided.
The lawsuit filed by Bishop McGuinness, Mount St. Mary, Heritage Hall, Crossings Christian and Oklahoma Christian School in Edmond against the OSSAA has been assigned to Oklahoma County District Court Judge Richard Ogden. No hearing date has been set.
Under Rule 14, private schools must move up in classification — no matter their enrollment — if they meet certain success criteria in a sport. In some sports in which both boys and girls teams compete, both of a private school’s teams must move up, even if only one of them meets the success criteria.
In the lawsuit, the schools claim the OSSAA, by denying them “proper division classification” based on what the OSSAA refers to as Average Daily Membership, or ADM, constitutes “an arbitrary and capricious decision in violation of the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act, in that such decision is founded solely on OSSAA’s historical animus toward private schools rather than any justifiable rationale.”
Neither the OSSAA’s executive director, David Jackson, nor its media relations director, Van Shea Iven, returned messages left Thursday afternoon seeking comment.
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Private schools joined the OSSAA in 1967
Until 1967, no private schools were members of the OSSAA. But both McGuinness and Tulsa Bishop Kelley — both Catholic schools — were approved as members for the 1967-68 school year.
A handful of other private schools, including Mount St. Mary, Oklahoma Christian School, Heritage Hall and Corn Bible Academy near Clinton – joined the OSSAA in the ensuing years. In 2003, after being denied entry into the organization multiple times, Christian Heritage Academy in Del City sued the OSSAA in federal court, leading the OSSAA to change its entry requirements for private schools. That case was settled in 2007 and CHA joined the OSSAA that year.
In April 2011, after years of complaints from public schools about the postseason success of private schools, OSSAA membership approved Rule 14 in 2011 by a 265-49 vote and it’s been tweaked multiple times since then. Originally, private-school football teams would be kept from rising above Class 5A, but now the cap is Class 6A Division II — the second-highest level of competition in that sport.
In volleyball, Mount St. Mary, with an ADM of 362.17 students for the 2023-24 school year, competed in Class 6A — the highest class in that sport — against teams from the state’s largest high schools including Broken Arrow (5,537.46 ADM), Tulsa Union (4,550.63 ADM), Mustang (3,668.68 ADM), Jenks (3,500.54 ADM) and Owasso (2,956.50 ADM).
“OSSAA cannot provide a rationale sufficient to justify this prejudicial treatment of its private school members through the application of Rule 14” except that it’s because of the dislike of private schools “by certain public schools and certain members of the OSSAA Board of Directors,” according to the lawsuit.
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OSSAA proposal drew response from Oklahoma AG
Only one current member of the OSSAA’s 15-member board of directors comes from a private school – Lance Parks of Bishop Kelley.
Earlier this year, the OSSAA board discussed tweaking Rule 14 or forming a new postseason bracket solely for private schools, a subject that’s been discussed for years. Jackson said in an OSSAA board meeting in February that about 75% of OSSAA members had responded to a survey sent about the subject and about 85% of those voters favored the separate-bracket option.
That brought a cease-and-desist letter from Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who said the proposal violated the U.S. Constitution’s 14th amendment and “bears no relation to a legitimate government purpose.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 5 private schools sue, saying OSSAA rule is unconstitutional
