RI parents say their son should be able to play a fifth year of sports. Now a judge will rule.
PROVIDENCE – A federal judge is expected to rule in the coming months on a private school student’s quest to play high school sports for a fifth year due to his disability.
U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith heard arguments Thursday in the parents’ request for an order blocking the Rhode Island Interscholastic League from enforcing its so-called “eight-semester” rule against the student. The rule specifies that once a student enters ninth grade, they are limited to eight consecutive semesters of eligibility.
Robert Clark Corrente argued for the family that the league’s refusal to waive the rule in the teenager’s case is legally indefensible and violates the American with Disabilities Act by discriminating against students who are unable to complete high school in four years, particularly given that it grants the majority of such requests.
“They do it all the time,” Corrente said.
“It’s wrong to say that everybody has to get the same package,” Corrente continued, citing the case of golfer Casey Martin, who sued the PGA Tour under the ADA after it refused to let him use a cart to accommodate his disability.
More: RI Interscholastic League won't let him play high school sports. Now his parents are suing.
Level the playing field
But Amy B. Yarbro countered that the eight-semester rule is intended to level the playing field for all student athletes and maintain harmony among the schools.
“The plaintiff is asking for more than is provided to others,” she said.
The league grants waivers in cases in which a student has missed playing sports due to a disability or emergency circumstance, she said.
“The reason John Doe is in this situation is because he’s played sports for four years, not because his disability prevented him from playing sports for a period of time,” Yarbro said.
Doe was diagnosed several years ago with ADHD, depression and was experiencing impairment in reading and writing. He was prescribed medication and therapy, as well as an increased focus on health and fitness.
“He just wants sports as part of his high school experience,” Judge Smith argued.
“The line has to be drawn somewhere,” Yarbro responded, adding “No organization is obligated to provide a disabled student with more.”
Request for accommodations after diagnosis
The complication in the student's case is the decision the family made after his freshman year to enroll him at an out-of-state boarding school, believing he would benefit from a small, structured environment. He repeated his freshman year at the school, as is common. His grades declined, however, and he became deeply depressed.
In Sept. 2022, following his diagnosis, his parents enrolled him in a private school in Rhode Island for his sophomore year that provided him academic and testing accommodations. He participated in interscholastic sports, as recommended by doctors and showed improvement, according to the family’s lawsuit.
His parents applied for a waiver of the eight-semester rule for his fifth year of high school, contending that his learning disabilities should be accommodated due to the “critical importance” of his participation in sports.
Waiver denied
The league held a waiver hearing in April 2023. Members reviewed the student's medical and psychiatric records, learning evaluations, school transcripts and letters in support.
The decision noted that he participated in basketball, football and outdoor track and field his freshman year in Rhode Island and football, basketball and lacrosse after making the “personal choice” to transfer to a boarding school. He returned to Rhode Island and played football and basketball his sophomore year and is eligible to play sports again this school year.
The league’s six-member committee concluded that the documents and testimony presented did not establish "an academic or athletic hardship” to support the waiver. It voted unanimously that his parents had failed to identify extenuating circumstances to establish an undue hardship.
They appealed to the league’s Principals’ Committee on Athletics, which upheld the decision in September. The family sued the league in U.S. District Court in October.
Disability Rights Rhode Island weighed in in support of the student in a friend-of-court brief, arguing that the RIIL rules and waiver procedures fail to comply with the ADA.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI judge to rule on parents' lawsuit against the RI Interscholastic League
