Letter: Time for BC School Sports Advisory Council to do the right thing
By Letters to the editor
To The Editor:
Sometime in the next week or so, the BC School Sports Advisory Council has an opportunity to overturn a $200 fine. Why should they? The fine represents more than 20% of the Grand Forks Secondary School Senior Girls ‘A’ Soccer team’s less than $1000 budget.
It was a sad comedy of adult errors that lead to the $200 fine and the team being disqualified from this year’s Provincial Championships. The girls have accepted that they lost the opportunity to play better teams, learn new strategies and experience what it’s like to compete at a higher level.
When you live in a rural area like Grand Forks and have to travel 3 hours to communities like Nakusp in order to play a soccer game, $200 means at least one less opportunity for the girls to play and improve.
The BCSS Advisory Council, consists of 15 of representatives from BC’s top school sports volunteers, school superintendents, BC Parent Advisory Council, BC School Trustees Association and the BC Principal’s and Vice Principal’s Association. We believe the Council representatives will understand the inequity that a more than 20% penalty will have on our team.
We anticipate they will show compassion and recognize that in this case, a more than 20% cut is contrary to one of the BCSS values to “Support the equity of opportunity for students and coaches to participate in athletics.”
The school’s teachers, principal and coach have all learned their lessons. The girls have already suffered the humiliation of being disqualified and the disappointment of not travelling to the Provincials.
We have to believe the Advisory Council will do the right thing and overturn the original fine, with no further penalty, and let the team end the year on a positive note.
Bill Henne, Parent
Christina Lake, BC
