(The Sentinel) — Homeschool students who played for Wallace County High School were unfairly neglected and discriminated against during athletic recognitions earlier this year, according to parents and a school board member.

According to USD 241 Wallace County Board of Education Member Sandy Cullens, two homeschooled girls who played on the state-tournament qualifying basketball team were omitted from “senior night” recognition; they and other students were deliberately ignored at the annual athletic awards banquet.

Cullens said the district has lost approximately 36 students in the last two years — most of whom are now home-schooled.  Only 167 full-time equivalent students attended USD 241 last year.

Thanks to a law passed in 2023, homeschool and private school students are permitted to participate in activities sponsored by local public schools.

According to Cullens, in February, the teammates of two of those students asked if they could walk across the floor on senior night to be recognized along with their teammates.

Cullens said the board then called a special session and went into executive session, saying there was a “student issue.”

According to Cullens, no students were discussed by name, and the Wallace County school board then adopted a policy disallowing homeschooled students senior night recognition.

Cullens said she believed the executive session was a violation of the Kansas Open Meetings Act and filed a complaint with the Kansas Attorney General’s office.

Cullens felt that since the students in question were not enrolled in the district, the reason for the executive session was improper.

Wallace County district falsely alleges KSHSSA rules prohibit participation 

According to Cullens, the district variously claimed that the Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) and state law prohibited the participation of the students.

However, neither KSHSAA nor state law make any such prohibition.

“That’s a school decision,” KSHSAA Assistant Executive Director Mark Lentz said. “We don’t have any policies related to senior night.”

Nor does Senate Bill 113, which authorizes “nonpublic school students” who meet eligibility requirements to participate in any KSHSAA-sanctioned events.

Indeed, the bill doesn’t address things like athletic banquets or senior nights at all, but states that the district board of education may require a nonpublic school student who participates in an activity to enroll or complete a particular course as a condition of participation, if such requirement is imposed upon all other students who participate in such activity. Under the bill, KSHSAA could not prohibit any such student from participating in any activity available to such student as part of the student’s primary enrollment and attendance at a nonpublic school.

According to a letter sent to the Sentinel by Wallace County parent Keara Richardson — the parent of one of the girl’s basketball players — the policy didn’t specifically prohibit participation, but her daughter was denied the opportunity to walk anyway.

“Though the policy they adopted to prevent my daughter’s participation did not specifically state she could not participate, they would not allow her,” Richardson wrote. “On Senior Recognition Night, my daughter went to the corner of the gym while her teammates, many of them angry she wasn’t allowed to participate, walked out on the floor to be recognized.”

Moreover, the snubs continued at the Wallace County annual athletics award banquet.

“On April 29, 2024, my high school children brought home an invitation from USD 241 inviting us to the Activities Banquet held annually at the end of the school year to recognize student activity achievement,” she wrote “Upon arriving, my children noticed that my son did not have a packet like the other athletes.

“As the event progressed my husband began to notice that my kids’ names were not listed as letter winners in any of the sports they qualified to letter in.  The only awards my children received were the awards their teammates voted to give them, and those awarded to them by [Kansas State High School Activities Association] and outside organizations.

“The local school district refused to acknowledge their participation in the district’s activities.  My senior daughter received All-State team status in volleyball and basketball, all three of my HS athletes participated at State Track, two of the three made the podium as medal winners for the district, but they were not awarded a letter in the district they competed to represent.”