In yet another example of insensitive, zero-tolerance approaches, school faculty members of Wichita East High in Wichita, Kansas reportedly compelled a special needs student athlete having both Down syndrome and autism to remove a varsity letter his mother bought for him. He was given instead a girl’s sweater to wear.
School officials stated he could not wear the varsity letter because he was not a member of the varsity team. Apparently they were forced to act upon this transgression because “one parent complained” and therefore no exception could be made for this student.
Nineteen year old Michael Kelley participates in extra-curricular basketball. His family bought him a varsity letter similar to what other students at the high school wear as a tribute to honor his athletic achievements.
Michael’s mother, Jolinda Kelley, says her adopted son is one of a kind and loves to play basketball. When Michael was recognized by the school for participating in the special needs team, she bought a varsity letter and sewed it to his jacket. She was shocked to learn he was asked by the school to take off the jacket.
The letter of the law seems to apply strictly to varsity letters.
Wichita East High School Principal Ken Thiessen in an interview with KSN news: “Teachers told the parents they would prefer he not wear the letter on his jacket.”
When asked if the school would consider giving a varsity letter to special needs students he replied:
Principal Ken Thiessen
“We have considered it, and our decision was no. We decided that is not appropriate in our situation because it is not a varsity level competition.”
KSN discovered this was not a district-wide policy. The high school seemed to be acting on its own accord.
Jolinda says she understands each school can make the rules, but she wants to see a change.
“It’s not just my son. It’s every student that was out there last night. It’s every student that’s there on Fridays that plays their hardest and to the best of their capability regardless what that is.”
The question remains as to why a varsity letter is such a hallowed emblem that it cannot be tarnished by having someone wearing one who is not a member of the athletic club. Free speech issues aside, how about showing some compassion or at least looking the other way? It is doubtful the majority of students themselves would act with such rigidity to Michael’s choice to wear a letterman jacket.
But if rules must be followed regarding uniforms those with special needs cannot participate in the Police Chief / Sheriff For a Day programs because those kids are not true law enforcement officers.
Now that this has hit the national news media, the administration of Wichita East High School will soon be tempest-tossed by the media storm on the horizon.
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
134 thoughts on “Student With Down Syndrome Told By Faculty He Cannot Wear Varsity Letter Jacket”
“Declaring”
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“If the bfs and gfs get to wear the jackets, why not this young man”
Girls wear boyfriend’s jackets and everyone knows it is not their own. It’s an oversozed male style jacket worn by a girl.
It’s a social message declaring the status of the girl (high status girlfriend of a high status jock).
A young man wearing a young man’s letter jacket is presumed to have earned that letter, not declaiming social status as a love interest to the actual earner.
I agree, either letters are meaningful or they are not.
The young man says its meaningful to him.
So, it has meaning.
By just giving letters away, they lose meaning.
You cannot have it both ways.
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In which Inga misunderstands the purpose of high school sports.
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Good grief. It’s high school, not graduate school. All of this letterman jacket stuff is nonsense, pure nonsense. High school should focus on academics. Sports are fine but they shouldn’t be given that much importance in the scheme of high school life. Ridiculous that adults are so invested in a letterman jacket and their kids high school sports teams that they would deny the kid some joy over his letterman jacket.
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Inga – we know who didn’t date a letterman in high school, don’t we. 😉
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No Paul actually we don’t.
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“This, “I have a friend/sibling/etc that is retarded/challenged….” business doesn’t mean squat.”
Does that prohibition include the young man’s mother?
Why is she an exception?
“Letters in High School are important as they set apart from the average, the exceptional in sports. …One high school lettered athlete might not even make the team in another county.”
That statement is contradicted by your following statement:
“Michael Kelley performed as well in his own way as did the quarterback of the high school football team.”
Either letters set apart or they don’t.
If a high school athlete “might not even make the team, by your measure! he or she should still letter regardless because they “performed as well in [thier] own way as did the quarterback of the high school football team.”
Either letters are meaningful, as you first stated, or they are not, as you later stated.
Your argument makes no sense.
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“This, “I have a friend/sibling/etc that is retarded/challenged….” business doesn’t mean squat”
I dunno, Isaac, gays and lesbians and transgenders and blacks and Muslims and other groups trot out their bona fides and you never complained.
“Michael Kelley performed as well in his own way as did the quarterback of the high school football team.”
Then create a path for lettering for the retarded, just as I argued above.
Buying one because you want one isn’t the same thing.
“For him the letter meant something”
That was my point about having retarded siblings and having worked with the retarded in group homes.
You don’t know what he thinks about it.
How you can make that claim is ludicrous.
I have heard from the retarded what they think of ribbons that come cheaply.
“the tough guy contrarian routine”
Give it a rest.
Either you have reasoned arguments or you don’t.
Leave the ad hominems in the logical fallacy box where you found them.
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Pogo and Trooper
Your automatic contrarian responses to almost everything posted on this blog are, for the most part, amusing. They do, provide a necessary bookend to discussions, profiling perceptions by degrees in contrast to an extreme. However, on this neither of you make it to the book shelf. This, “I have a friend/sibling/etc that is retarded/challenged….” business doesn’t mean squat. The fact remains, neither of you are retarded or challenged, at least not as is Michael Kelly.
Letters in High School are important as they set apart from the average, the exceptional in sports. They don’t, unfortunately, illustrate the same abilities across the community, communities, state, etc. One high school lettered athlete might not even make the team in another county. One thing they are supposed to have in common, regardless of the calibre of one school’s abilities compared to that of another is that the recipient should be of exceptional ability, in their own specific environment or sport. Michael Kelly is not of that environment or sport. What does it matter? It does nothing to diminish the letter or the valid recipient of the letter. By taking the position of the principal, the letter is far more diminished in that school’s environment. Why anyone would now want to wear it is beyond the purposes of high school.
Originally and still for the most part, high school achievements have focused on academics, sports, and civil or community service. The academics focus on the individual. The sports on the individual as part of a team. The community service on the individual in all of society.
High school is a comprehensive experience and training fora more mature and complete involvement in life. Michael Kelley performed as well in his own way as did the quarterback of the high school football team. For him the letter meant something. In the context of what high school means and is, it also meant something, for the athlete who earns it and equally for Michael Kelly who earned his. Making a statement as did the parent and possibly their kid and having it supported by the principal illustrates none of the intentions of the high school experience. The position of the principal makes for a fractured and dysfunctional experience instead of the total experience that is intended to prepare one for life.
Neither of you have anything. Wait for the appropriate post to haul out the tough guy contrarian routine. Have you noticed that under Obama’s foreign policy Egypt and Saudi Arabia are now taking care of the messes in their neighborhood. Gee, I guess you never saw that coming. Now give that one a try.
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I agree Bettykath, if the young man here is someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend, he could wear the letter jacket same as you.
But that’s not what you’re arguing, is it?
You were wearing your boyfriend’s jacket as a status symbol and a sign of coupling for others to see.
Everyone knew it wasn’t your jacket or your latter, that’s why you wore it.
Either the letter means something or it means nothing.
You are arguing it is meaningless, except than why wear your boyfriend’s jacket?
Should other girls have been allowed to wear letter jackets and say they were your boyfriend’s jacket?
Why not, are you a hater?
Are you against the first amendment?
Are you superior to the unboyfriended?
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Pogo – if you didn’t earn the letter, you don’t get to wear it, is the theory. So no bfs or gfs wearing the jackets. If the bfs and gfs get to wear the jackets, why not this young man?
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Larry Brothers
I’d like to see the varsity lettermen take turns letting Michael wear their lettermen jackets for a day.
Great idea.
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I wore a varsity sweater with a letter. I didn’t play, it belonged to my boyfriend. The cheerleaders all had sweaters of their own, but they didn’t play, they cheered.
I think the problem is a parent who has a problem dealing with the differently-abled and has a real need to prove his/her superiority over others. What better way than for their own child to collect emblems of his superiority over others and his/her parental superiority by having such a superior child.
Someone raised the question earlier, if the letter is so restricted, how could a mother just buy one? While first amendment rights don’t seem to follow one into a corporation or a school (why not, since it’s a government organization?), Michael should be able to wear the letter outside of school without problem (except from the parent who objected).
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“Never mind that many athletes are given high school diplomas without earning them.”
Because expanding fraud is the answer to fraud, apparently.
It’s the same claims gay marriage advocates make:
What’s the big deal? Who does it hurt? Hetero marriages are frauds, so who cares? You’re a hater if you disagree!
I find it interesting, especially recognizing that the anger here against athletes is clearly rooted in envy, which is a destructive force, thus enabling the arguments posed.
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I’d like to see the varsity lettermen take turns letting Michael wear their lettermen jackets for a day.
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Won’t you please consider the poor athletes my ass. what about all the perks that the athletes.get. What about getting a retest because the poor athlete failed and would not be able to play without a passing grade. And the poor athlete that’s gotten out of jail so he can play in a game and etc..
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I have a new tack on this whole thing. No athlete gets a letter unless their team wins the state championship in the AAAA division of the state. And then the student-athlete must play at least half the possible time. No injury awards would be given.
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Name the parent – and let (make) them own up.
This come down to the choice: Do you need to win, or can you live with getting what you need?
That parent needed to win, but the kid they are championing, the assumed letter winner who was shamed by the wearing of a letter won by other than varsity sport participation at a stated level, was probably OK with getting the letter he needed. Sure, there is an impact on only “earning” the letter, but there are other lessons available. The lad himself, should be outfitted with a suitable substitute adornment that meets his needs without violating the rule. Some minor variance might be enough. Any Letter manufacturers out there?
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Never mind that many athletes are given high school diplomas without earning them. Never mind that it’s even more common in college (see UNC fraud).
The real tragedy is that twenty years from now when that athlete is managing an Applebees or working as a mall cop, he will be trying with all him might to relive the glory days of high school, remembering the big game, sharing the memory with any captive audience he can find.
But that peak experience will be ruined for him. The high point of his life will have no real meaning because the school let some special needs kid wear a jacket he didn’t “earn”.
Won’t you please consider the poor athletes?
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sjreidhead has it right.
Give them opportunity, award merit.
The Christian thing to do is to teach a man to fish, not to give him a fish.
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I found every e-mail address for every individual School Board member on the website for the school. I sent them a reasoned opinion, alerting them to how the move has distinguished their school nationally.
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This is my high school.
The problem here is that we live in a politically correct world where every participant gets a trophy. I’m not aware of any school that offered these to any students other than varsity athletes. I’m obligated to say, though, in fear of being ostracized, that we should let the kid have it if it makes him feel good. I mean how can we take it away without looking like we’re picking on this poor kid? I’m not going to win arguing that we should take it away, so I’m not. It seems to me, though, the ultimate conclusion to this is either ‘everybody wins’ and gets a letter jacket or no one does.
“It’s not just my son. It’s every student that was out there last night. It’s every student that’s there on Fridays that plays their hardest and to the best of their capability regardless what that is.”
“Declaring”
“If the bfs and gfs get to wear the jackets, why not this young man”
Girls wear boyfriend’s jackets and everyone knows it is not their own. It’s an oversozed male style jacket worn by a girl.
It’s a social message declaring the status of the girl (high status girlfriend of a high status jock).
A young man wearing a young man’s letter jacket is presumed to have earned that letter, not declaiming social status as a love interest to the actual earner.
I agree, either letters are meaningful or they are not.
The young man says its meaningful to him.
So, it has meaning.
By just giving letters away, they lose meaning.
You cannot have it both ways.
In which Inga misunderstands the purpose of high school sports.
Good grief. It’s high school, not graduate school. All of this letterman jacket stuff is nonsense, pure nonsense. High school should focus on academics. Sports are fine but they shouldn’t be given that much importance in the scheme of high school life. Ridiculous that adults are so invested in a letterman jacket and their kids high school sports teams that they would deny the kid some joy over his letterman jacket.
Inga – we know who didn’t date a letterman in high school, don’t we. 😉
No Paul actually we don’t.
“This, “I have a friend/sibling/etc that is retarded/challenged….” business doesn’t mean squat.”
Does that prohibition include the young man’s mother?
Why is she an exception?
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wichita-East-High-School/112010652158629
“Letters in High School are important as they set apart from the average, the exceptional in sports. …One high school lettered athlete might not even make the team in another county.”
That statement is contradicted by your following statement:
“Michael Kelley performed as well in his own way as did the quarterback of the high school football team.”
Either letters set apart or they don’t.
If a high school athlete “might not even make the team, by your measure! he or she should still letter regardless because they “performed as well in [thier] own way as did the quarterback of the high school football team.”
Either letters are meaningful, as you first stated, or they are not, as you later stated.
Your argument makes no sense.
“This, “I have a friend/sibling/etc that is retarded/challenged….” business doesn’t mean squat”
I dunno, Isaac, gays and lesbians and transgenders and blacks and Muslims and other groups trot out their bona fides and you never complained.
“Michael Kelley performed as well in his own way as did the quarterback of the high school football team.”
Then create a path for lettering for the retarded, just as I argued above.
Buying one because you want one isn’t the same thing.
“For him the letter meant something”
That was my point about having retarded siblings and having worked with the retarded in group homes.
You don’t know what he thinks about it.
How you can make that claim is ludicrous.
I have heard from the retarded what they think of ribbons that come cheaply.
“the tough guy contrarian routine”
Give it a rest.
Either you have reasoned arguments or you don’t.
Leave the ad hominems in the logical fallacy box where you found them.
Pogo and Trooper
Your automatic contrarian responses to almost everything posted on this blog are, for the most part, amusing. They do, provide a necessary bookend to discussions, profiling perceptions by degrees in contrast to an extreme. However, on this neither of you make it to the book shelf. This, “I have a friend/sibling/etc that is retarded/challenged….” business doesn’t mean squat. The fact remains, neither of you are retarded or challenged, at least not as is Michael Kelly.
Letters in High School are important as they set apart from the average, the exceptional in sports. They don’t, unfortunately, illustrate the same abilities across the community, communities, state, etc. One high school lettered athlete might not even make the team in another county. One thing they are supposed to have in common, regardless of the calibre of one school’s abilities compared to that of another is that the recipient should be of exceptional ability, in their own specific environment or sport. Michael Kelly is not of that environment or sport. What does it matter? It does nothing to diminish the letter or the valid recipient of the letter. By taking the position of the principal, the letter is far more diminished in that school’s environment. Why anyone would now want to wear it is beyond the purposes of high school.
Originally and still for the most part, high school achievements have focused on academics, sports, and civil or community service. The academics focus on the individual. The sports on the individual as part of a team. The community service on the individual in all of society.
High school is a comprehensive experience and training fora more mature and complete involvement in life. Michael Kelley performed as well in his own way as did the quarterback of the high school football team. For him the letter meant something. In the context of what high school means and is, it also meant something, for the athlete who earns it and equally for Michael Kelly who earned his. Making a statement as did the parent and possibly their kid and having it supported by the principal illustrates none of the intentions of the high school experience. The position of the principal makes for a fractured and dysfunctional experience instead of the total experience that is intended to prepare one for life.
Neither of you have anything. Wait for the appropriate post to haul out the tough guy contrarian routine. Have you noticed that under Obama’s foreign policy Egypt and Saudi Arabia are now taking care of the messes in their neighborhood. Gee, I guess you never saw that coming. Now give that one a try.
I agree Bettykath, if the young man here is someone’s boyfriend or girlfriend, he could wear the letter jacket same as you.
But that’s not what you’re arguing, is it?
You were wearing your boyfriend’s jacket as a status symbol and a sign of coupling for others to see.
Everyone knew it wasn’t your jacket or your latter, that’s why you wore it.
Either the letter means something or it means nothing.
You are arguing it is meaningless, except than why wear your boyfriend’s jacket?
Should other girls have been allowed to wear letter jackets and say they were your boyfriend’s jacket?
Why not, are you a hater?
Are you against the first amendment?
Are you superior to the unboyfriended?
Pogo – if you didn’t earn the letter, you don’t get to wear it, is the theory. So no bfs or gfs wearing the jackets. If the bfs and gfs get to wear the jackets, why not this young man?
Larry Brothers
I’d like to see the varsity lettermen take turns letting Michael wear their lettermen jackets for a day.
Great idea.
I wore a varsity sweater with a letter. I didn’t play, it belonged to my boyfriend. The cheerleaders all had sweaters of their own, but they didn’t play, they cheered.
I think the problem is a parent who has a problem dealing with the differently-abled and has a real need to prove his/her superiority over others. What better way than for their own child to collect emblems of his superiority over others and his/her parental superiority by having such a superior child.
Someone raised the question earlier, if the letter is so restricted, how could a mother just buy one? While first amendment rights don’t seem to follow one into a corporation or a school (why not, since it’s a government organization?), Michael should be able to wear the letter outside of school without problem (except from the parent who objected).
“Never mind that many athletes are given high school diplomas without earning them.”
Because expanding fraud is the answer to fraud, apparently.
It’s the same claims gay marriage advocates make:
What’s the big deal? Who does it hurt? Hetero marriages are frauds, so who cares? You’re a hater if you disagree!
I find it interesting, especially recognizing that the anger here against athletes is clearly rooted in envy, which is a destructive force, thus enabling the arguments posed.
I’d like to see the varsity lettermen take turns letting Michael wear their lettermen jackets for a day.
Won’t you please consider the poor athletes my ass. what about all the perks that the athletes.get. What about getting a retest because the poor athlete failed and would not be able to play without a passing grade. And the poor athlete that’s gotten out of jail so he can play in a game and etc..
I have a new tack on this whole thing. No athlete gets a letter unless their team wins the state championship in the AAAA division of the state. And then the student-athlete must play at least half the possible time. No injury awards would be given.
Name the parent – and let (make) them own up.
This come down to the choice: Do you need to win, or can you live with getting what you need?
That parent needed to win, but the kid they are championing, the assumed letter winner who was shamed by the wearing of a letter won by other than varsity sport participation at a stated level, was probably OK with getting the letter he needed. Sure, there is an impact on only “earning” the letter, but there are other lessons available. The lad himself, should be outfitted with a suitable substitute adornment that meets his needs without violating the rule. Some minor variance might be enough. Any Letter manufacturers out there?
Never mind that many athletes are given high school diplomas without earning them. Never mind that it’s even more common in college (see UNC fraud).
The real tragedy is that twenty years from now when that athlete is managing an Applebees or working as a mall cop, he will be trying with all him might to relive the glory days of high school, remembering the big game, sharing the memory with any captive audience he can find.
But that peak experience will be ruined for him. The high point of his life will have no real meaning because the school let some special needs kid wear a jacket he didn’t “earn”.
Won’t you please consider the poor athletes?
sjreidhead has it right.
Give them opportunity, award merit.
The Christian thing to do is to teach a man to fish, not to give him a fish.
I found every e-mail address for every individual School Board member on the website for the school. I sent them a reasoned opinion, alerting them to how the move has distinguished their school nationally.
This is my high school.
The problem here is that we live in a politically correct world where every participant gets a trophy. I’m not aware of any school that offered these to any students other than varsity athletes. I’m obligated to say, though, in fear of being ostracized, that we should let the kid have it if it makes him feel good. I mean how can we take it away without looking like we’re picking on this poor kid? I’m not going to win arguing that we should take it away, so I’m not. It seems to me, though, the ultimate conclusion to this is either ‘everybody wins’ and gets a letter jacket or no one does.