(The Center Square) – The family of a junior at Baraboo High School is suing the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association after she was ruled ineligible to play softball at the school this spring.
The lawsuit was filed by the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty on behalf of Macy Weigel. Weigel transferred to the public school from Community Christian School, which does not have athletic teams.
The Weigels say the transfer was necessary due to financial constraints after Weigel’s younger sibling was diagnosed with a deadly and rare blood condition and her mother left her career as a full-time teacher to care for the sibling.
The Weigels applied for a waiver to allow Macy to compete for Baraboo this spring but that waiver was denied by the WIAA.
“Our daughter is not gaming the system,” said Emily Weigel, Macy’s mother. “She simply wants to participate in high school sports and is making the best of her family’s involuntary decision to switch schools. The WIAA has gone too far, and we are fighting back on her behalf and the many other students who have been subject to the arbitrary decision-making of this organization.”
Macy has competed in a recreational softball league previously, making her ineligible for an automatic waiver for those who have not competed in a sports before.
“Our clients live and pay taxes in the school district, and their child has been denied access to programs sponsored and funded by the district because the bureaucrats at the WIAA arbitrarily decided she was not worthy of a ‘waiver’ of their ‘transfer rules,’ said WILL Associate Counsel Skylar Croy. “We must rein in this illogical decision making to allow children the full opportunity to flourish and develop.”
The lawsuit challenges WIAA’s authority to exercise authority over public schools in the state because there is no statute or constitutional provision giving that authority to the WIAA over the state’s public schools, which are all WIAA members and make up 80% of WIAA membership.
“WIAA’s exercise of this power, and school districts’ deferral to WIAA, violates multiple doctrines and constitutional provisions,” the lawsuit says.
