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News & ArtsTuesday, December 16, 2008
News / Sports Family of Booted Basketball Star Files Suit Against the School District
Posted by Jonah Spangenthal-Lee on Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 3:39 PM
The family of a high school basketball star who was recently booted from the Seattle school district over residency issues has filed suit to get their son back in to Garfield High School.
Wroten was kicked out of Garfield on December 5th after school district investigators found he was living outside of the district in Renton. Last week, about 200 Garfield students walked out of class and marched down to district headquarters to protest the district's decision.
In the suit, filed in King County Superior Court on December 12th, Wroten's family alleges the district has violated a settlement agreement which would have allowed Wroten to attend Garfield during the 2008-2009 school year. The Wrotens' suit notes that Tony has been a student in the Seattle school district since he was in first grade
Wroten, a top-ranked basketball prospect, attended Garfield during the 2007-2008 school year by listing a relative's address on his school paperwork. Over the summer, Wroten—then living in Renton—applied for non-resident enrollment in the district but was denied because 65 other sophomores living in the district were already on the school's waiting list.
According to the suit, the Wrotens appealed the district's decision and rented a house about a mile away from Garfield. However, Seattle School District spokesman David Tucker says district security officers conducted an investigation and found that Wroten was still living in Renton. .
The Wrotens have asked a judge to allow Tony to be reinstated as a student at Garfield. In teh meantime, Tucker says Wroten could be eligible to attend Cleveland, Chief Sealth or Rainier Beach, which (shock!) do not currently have waiting lists.
Man, I must have led a sheltered childhood.
One of the worst things about America is we can sue anyone for anything.
It's all about the scholarships and the sports contracts down the road, sadly.
Not the academics - which is the reason why we actually have these things called schools.
How about this: let him in, and then shut down league basketball. Spend the money on art and music programs instead.
It is kind of fascist to force parents and kids to participate in the pretense of school when they don't want school. Is it even possible to impart knowledge so someone who doesn't want to learn? Why try?
trying to explain to someone the value of education when TV and music shows them only fools take that path and they won't get the hot babes is a total waste of time.
I have no idea why this is even news. This is foolish on the parents' part. This young man needs an education not a basketball team to play for. One doesn't need to see "Hoop Dreams'' to know Tony Wroten has an extraordinarily low chance to play pro basketball. Is he even 15 y/o?
Fnarf are you joking? Garfield is an arts magnet and people like quincy jones pour tons of money into arts and music there every year.
As for the district, well...I'm glad they are spending money on frivolous lawsuits and not on preventing school closures. Go SPS!
Sure, sports may not have the "cultural relevance" of art or the theatre, but it keeps kids, particularly inner-city kids, off the streets and involved in something that builds community, establishes a strong sense of self and team and builds confidence, self-esteem and many other positive qualities. When I was a kid, poetry didn't help me with shit (Paul Constant, the Hitler of poetry, knows what I'm talking about.); sports did: it got me off of the couch and kept me out of trouble, taught me that we all have roles (Some of us are the stars ballplayers and others the three-point specialists.) and responsibilities and, as a youth coach, I learned how to be a leader and how to teach others.
I know it's hard to admit that sports could have more value than the beer commercials and muscles you reduce it to, especially since you all were probably the scrawny, unathletic kids that were picked last.
Miracle and Rees - Lessons of the Locker Room
I'm definitely not a sports-hater, but I have to be honest about it; my high-school coaches weren't building the kind of "character" that people seem to expect. We were supposed to hate our opponents; cheating was part of "whatever it takes"; we were supposed to be as brutal as possible, and that didn't stay on the field. I know which of my teammates were rapists, alcoholics, cheaters and bullies; it isn't a pretty list. For that matter - I'm not proud of how I had to behave to hide the fact that I'm gay.
High-school sports CAN be a great thing, but it shouldn't be a training ground for a a few professional athletes at the expense of creating hundreds of thousands of men with a warped character.
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