I wrote > The education of a child and participation in extra curricular athletic activities are separate activities.

Aaron then asked > I am sorry, is it your position that phys ed is not part of the educational mission?

Why yes Aaron it is my position that as a part of the curriculum physical education classes are NOT an extra-curricular activity. Let me help you distinguish between the two, a child participating in a class activity (this instance physical education) gets a grade, for participating in an EXTRA curricular activity you might get your name in the paper for scoring the winning basket.

Based on this I can only conclude that anything you have to say on this matter is of little consequence, so I’ll leave you to your own wit.

We did. I know that Little League, for example, has had a no jewelry policy since the 60’s. According to friends that officiate, the no jewelry rule in Fed and NCAA has been around at least since the late 60’s.

The point is still that the playing a sport where there is a good chance of getting tangled up in a necklace or bracelet is amplified when there is a tube attached to the young lady’s head and neck, and trails behind her.

> you declined to

Read it again, you are wrong. Read all of it.

> how about trying to address the central point

My central point is this. its dubious, but we can’t say for sure based on this scant and contradictory record.

Gitar

> The reason for this is

Lawyers, actually. Our overactive tort system.

We did none of this crap when I was a kid.

The oxygen Jenny carries poses NO GREATER risk to anyone around her then the GAMES THEMSELVES. Uh, the batteries in the motorized wheelchairs have a greater explosive potential!!!

This boils down to LAWYERS and INSURANCE companies!!!

Simba (the dog), is a highly trained service dog and poses less of a threat of injury to any one then the athletes themselves!!!!

Why can’t Jenny carry the tanks herself. My guess is the added weight coupled with the rigours of the physical activity woud be counter productive by simply placing a greater strain on her cardio-vascular system!

Seems to me athletes will step on, run into, bump into or strike each other accidentally with or without Jenny and Simba. So ban the games all together so no one gets hurt!

If anyone involved, employed, around, or interested etc., in the Special Olympics even allows the thought of an “unfair advantage” for Jenny and or her team to WIN as an argument of denial in participation then all I can say is, Hell has a SPECIAL place for them, right next to the parents that fight at their kids sporting events, or heckle other kids from the stands!

The Special Olympics is SUPPOSED to be about overcoming CHALLENGES and ADAPTING to ADVERSITY. S.O. PLEASE tell your attorneys and insurance company to pound sand and let the young lady compete!!! There are plenty of other blood suckers in those fields out there that will gladly except you as clients and underwrite your endevours. SHAME ON YOU!!!

For what it’s worth I have sponsored a Special Olympian in both winter ans summer games for the past 15 years, now I’m not so sure whether I’ll continue knowing how they are handling this situation! I didn’t realize the principals of S.O. moonlighted as politicians!)

Bob

I’ve read the complaint. It says that Jenny has “fully participated in safely and fully participated in School District basketball and sports
programs using her service animal and oxygen tank since entering high school in 2007 until on or about November 9, 2009, when she was denied the opportunity to fully participate on the court
during basketball games.” I am not sure “fully participated” in the programs is the same things as having competed “on the court”. If she has, more power to her.

The email provided as an exhibit does indicate that SOI rejected the oxygen tank option, as well as the service animal. However, the complaint requests that SOI and the school district allow full participation with service animal, so maybe they want Jenny to be able to use the service animal on the court, instead of the tank. They also don’t detail where the special olympian who participated with a 20 lb tank participated, although they do claim he participated safely.

They also mention an accommodation of an olympian being pushed in a wheelchair. That doesn’t seem to me to be the same. A person pushing a wheelchair is cumbersome, but I would think there may be less of a risk of injury from tripping into the tank or over the tube/leash.

It is curious that two of the charges in the complaint are that the school district and SOI deprived Jenny of “loss of companionship” and “lack of supervision”.

One of the articles made it sound as if Jenny had been training with her team for weeks. In fact, it was November 3rd, when first practice was held, and SOI determined she shouldn’t compete on the 9th.

I don’t wish to speculate anymore, as I would like more facts before I come to any conclusion. It is possible that SOI is behaving very badly against a kid who has participated in many games before, against kids/teams of similar physical and mental abilities, using an oxygen tank and her service animal. If it can be done, then it becomes a matter as to whether the accommodation is reasonable. However, it is possible that Jenny cannot compete on the team for a number of reasons – health and safety of other players, Jenny, the animal. I will be interested in reading the defendant’s response.

As I am sure you know, one of the things that must be considered when excluding a disabled / challenged individual from an event is the reasonable expectation that the person or others will be injured.

Both the NCAA and NFHSA require that no jewelry be worn by a player. They even extend the ban to Medic Alert bracelets and necklaces which must be taped down to the player. (The bracelet cannot be visible – it must be under tape. A medic alert necklace must be removed and only the TAG be on the player.)

The reason for this is that basketball is a game where people reach and stab at the ball. Even reaching for a rebound will put players at risk of entanglement with jewelry. Players used to get their fingers in the jewelry which caused dislocated / broken fingers and arms.

The only way to make this situation safe for all players is to have the young lady not wear her oxygen mask / tube. As she requires the oxygen – even in a backpack that she carries – there is no way to prevent others from reaching in, and getting their fingers entangled in the oxygen lines.

This is one case where I can’t see a way to make the player safe not only for herself, but for others as well.

Yeah, what I’d thought….the crickets are still chirping since you declined to address the point of my posts, which is that a large protruding metal object is inherently unsafe while playing basketball.

So, while the crickets continue to chirp, how about trying to address the central point – How is it that wearing an oxygen cylinder (or even a concentrator as mentioned by Nora) is safe during a typical basketball game? Please compare and contrast this to the typical ban on wedding rings, watches and other far smaller jewlery while playing basketball, all of which do not protrude substantially from the natural profile of the wearers body.

On this one:
“> Had you, you would know that compressed gas cylinders be they helium, welding grade oxygen or even medical grade oxygen are all HIGH pressure cylinders

And they have to be compressed?”

Are you really that uneducated? Nahhhh. Must be willful ignorance. (Sorry for slipping into insults, but dang man, you really are clueless about some pretty basic stuff, or at least you’re typing some pretty clueless stuff.)

Oh, and that an unsafe condition of the past (that the person in question may have been allowed previously to do this) in no way makes it acceptable to continue. The facts of hoop are such that it should be self evident that it’s unsafe for a player to have an oxygen tank (or concentrator) on their person during a game.

Now, if the person in question wants to play some non-contact game using a basketball and hoop, like say, Horse, or something like the shooting contests they have at the all star game, hey great. No problem with that. Wear your oxygen as it’s NOT UNSAFE to do so in those conditions.

5 on 5 on a full or half court on the other hand – forget it.

Yes, if the oxygen is not compressed, then the tank contains one or two breaths. The whole point of compressing to 2000 or so psi is to cram as much gas into as small a tank as will do the job.

One of the things we don’t know is how much oxygen she needs, that helps to determine how big a tank to last for a couple of hours.