King County NAACP Charges WIAA Discriminates Against Black Teams

In a lengthy email to the Washington Interscholastic Athletic/Activities Association (WIAA), the King County NAACP charges that "students and communities of color" have been "affected by the discriminatory practices and policies governed by the Washington Interscholastic Athletic/Activities Association (WIAA), to their respective athletic programs in the state of Washington."

The KC NAACP alleges this example:

There have been patterns of inequitable sanctions placed on Rainier Beach High School (RBHS) a predominantly school of color, dated since 2014, in which the WIAA denied the RBHS boys basketball team to accept an invite to a national tournament in New York and discovered through WIAA meeting minutes (December 2013) that they approved a predominantly white coach and school to attend a national tournament a year prior. To add insult to injury, the RBHS team fought and won their request to attend the national tournament, but WIAA forbade them to practice until the day they left to the national tournament. This is discriminatory as different rules were applied to the two schools.

They go on to say that this school year there again has been a practice of "foul play of reporting a loss for RBHS' basketball team" and that while the WIAA "revised RBHS’s win/loss record of 18-3 on the main website, they left the 17-4 win/loss record on the RPI system."

Basically - and using mathematical evidence - the KC NAACP has laid out a story of the WIAA seeming to discriminate against mostly Black teams while shoring up mostly white (and private school) teams. 

They want "a revision of the 21-22 state basketball seeding to reflect the true RPI results for RBHS, Mountlake Terrace and the other teams that were affected.

It is WIAA’s responsibility to ensure that this process is fair and accurate per your mission. We are not accepting an apology and that you will make changes next year. We are demanding change effective immediately. (bold and underscore theirs).

In addition, we are demanding more diversity, inclusion, and transparency of the WIAA Executive Board and staff. Your staff does not reflect the diversity of student athletes in Washington State public schools.

I looked at the WIAA website. Yes, their staff and Board are both quite white. It is odd, given how many teams have so many athletes of color.

It will be interesting to see what happens from here. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
In 2014, the SPS Board, headed by Betty Patu, voted unanimously to approve the RBHS bball team to be a part of this national tournament as it was a great experience. I am disappointed that the Executives at WIAA have continued discriminatory practices towards our schools! There may need to be a change of governance to be directed by the people not by Athletic Directors from each District. It is a conflict of interest, especially those (O’Dea) who serve on stakeholder committees that cause discriminatory damages to kids and families of
color. How do you jump from #8 to #3 without evidence to support this BS?!?!
2/27/22, 2:54 PM
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