Judge Rules State Association Violated the ADA When It Prevented High School Senior from Participating in Athletics

(Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Sports Litigation Alert, which publishes 24 times and features a searchable archive of more than 5,000 article. To subscribe, visit www.sportslitigationalert.com)

A federal judge from the District of Rhode Island has ruled that the Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it prevented a high-school senior from participating in athletics.

By way of background, the court wrote that plaintiff John Doe suffered from an educational standpoint during the pandemic, which forced him to learn from “a computer screen.” Wanting “better” for their son, his parents moved him from a parochial school, where he was relegated to remote learning, to an out-of-state boarding school. There he repeated his freshman year “with the hope that he would have a better academic experience and forge in-person social connections with other students of his age.” However, he struggled there, too, both academically and socially. He was subsequently diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and ADHD, among other learning disabilities. His doctors recommended he get involved in athletics. So, his parents re-enrolled him in a private school in Rhode Island, where his participation in football and basketball had a “positive impact on his mental health and overall wellbeing.”

All was fine until the latter part of Doe’s junior year when he was informed, pursuant to the RIIL’s eight-semester rule, that he was ineligible to participate in athletics his senior year.

The association rejected Doe’s claim of “undue hardship” and denied his request for a waiver. His parents then filed a lawsuit, arguing that the league violated the ADA because it failed to make reasonable accommodations based on his disabilities. … To subscribe, visit www.sportslitigationalert.com