Although additional passionate pleas were made on behalf of Abernathy Collegiate Charter School’s request to allow their students to participate in Tehachapi Unified School District athletics, the TUSD Board of Trustees voted unanimously to deny the request at its June 10 meeting.
Before the vote, Abernathy principal Shyanne Ledford addressed the board.
“After a year of working together, creating pathways, I feel our need is different now,” said Ledford. “We are completely in pursuit of academic excellence, but we are also for equality of opportunity. All we are asking for is for the board to open that door and create that opportunity.”
“There isn’t a community around that has competing high schools that play for each other’s teams,” said Trustee Patty Snyder. “I feel that we are two separate programs.”
“Our students in our community have access to many activities, like soccer, baseball and basketball, available to them. It isn’t that we are depriving anyone from playing sports or going to a dance. My point is that our high schools and junior highs are not the only athletic programs in town.”
After more pleas were heard from Abernathy teachers, a student and a parent, President Mary Graham stated that, in the end, TUSD has no legal obligation to accommodate Abernathy’s request.
“We had our attorney look up what our legal obligations are,” said Graham. “We are not bound by any law to provide extracurricular activities to any charter school.”
Earlier, Ledford stated that should the Board of Trustees deny Abernathy’s request to participate in TUSD athletics, the charter school would “plan to reach out to every local sport opportunity that exists and bring them here to recruit” on its campus.
“Otherwise, we would like to consider working with other charter schools to create our own inter-collegiate teams that can compete locally,” said Ledford.
Comments are closed.