TSSAA weighs in on SCS thoughts of leaving
The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association has responded to the letter Shelby County Schools superintendent Joris Ray wrote on Monday about forming an exploratory committee to re-evaluate its relationship with the TSSAA.
Ray concluded his letter by listing demands and members of the committee, saying that a recommendation will be made this fall on whether SCS should remain in the TSSAA.
TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress responded Tuesday with a letter to Ray pointing out that the member schools make and agree upon the rules through an elected Legislative Council.
"The member schools have established their own rules for competition in this fashion for nearly a century," Childress wrote. "If the member schools in the Shelby County Schools want to propose changes to TSSAA rules, the TSSAA Constitution provides an established method for them to do so. A vague demand which leaves it to others to try to fashion language that will satisfy that demand, coupled with a veiled threat to withdraw from TSSAA, is not the way to accomplish change."
Ray wrote Monday that he was "overwhelmed" with complaints from students, parents, staff and community members about a range of issues, including the TSSAA'S restart plan for football during the COVID-19 pandemic to James Wiseman and Ryan Boyce being ruled ineligible at Memphis East and long travel times to games.
Childress wrote that Ray's suggestion that TSSAA'S football restart plan wasn't being backed by science was "illinformed."
The season began for much of the state last week, but Shelby County Schools is planning to meet again after Labor Day to discuss when the football season and all other fall sports might begin for its schools.
Childress said that the TSSAA developed the plan by taking CDC guidelines into account, working with the governor's office and relying on information from the National Federation of State High School Associations.
"As a member of the NFHS, TSSAA has access to and made use of returnto-play guidance developed by the NFHS' own Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, a 15-member committee that includes nationally renowned medical doctors and research specialists," Childress wrote.
"TSSAA took into account data and standards from the Centers for Disease Control, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. TSSAA also gathered input from numerous sister associations in other states. TSSAA worked closely with Governor Bill Lee's administration, which had the benefit of expert input from
both state and national sources."
Ray also mentioned the demographics of Shelby County Schools, which is the state's largest public school system and serves over 100,000 children — 90 percent of whom are students of color with 60 percent economically disadvantaged, according to the letter. Ray wrote that the TSSAA'S rules are "antiquated" and penalize SCS' students, particularly those who are students of color and from underprivileged backgrounds.
Childress said that he could not comment on the Wiseman case and chose not to acknowledge Ray's assertion that the TSSAA has been inattentive to equity issues and their impact on students of color.
Wrote Childress: "The letter addresses some matters that remain in litigation and about which TSSAA will not comment, nor will TSSAA dignify with a response the wholly unwarranted assertion that TSSAA has been inattentive to equity and the impact of its rules on students of color."