When you walk into a boys sectional swim meet, you do not expect to encounter a line of protesters, but that’s what happened at Hamilton Southeastern High School Saturday afternoon.
I first became aware of the controversy during a series of statements by the public at last Wednesday’s school board meeting. Two female students and one adult spoke during the board’s discussion about the policy on nondiscrimination. They were clearly not pleased with the handling of the process by school officials surrounding sexual harassment allegations against the male swimmer in question. All three said originally they were told the Fishers High School swimmer would not compete in the sectional meet, but were later told he would be competing.
School Board member Brad Boyer said at the meeting he was under the impression that this swimmer would not be allowed to swim at the sectional meet.
The Indianapolis Star published a story in its February 16th print edition about this controversy. Reporters Emma Kate Fittes, Tim Evans and Kyle Neddenriep write in that story that the Fishers Police Department has an open case of harassment involving this swimmer, but police spokesman Tom Weger says no detective has been assigned to this case and it is not an active investigation.
The Star reports that the student in question was suspended from the Fishers High School swim team, but is now being allowed to swim in the sectional meet. That spurred the Saturday protest at HSE High School, the site of the sectional meet.
The newspaper was provided access to some documents in the case. Here is one paragraph from the story:
“IndyStar obtained documents from a parent whose daughter was involved in an investigation by the school into the matter. The documents said the male student would not be allowed to swim with the team ‘due to substantiated cases of harassment’ and ‘fear exhibited by female swimmers’ making the pool a ‘hostile environment.'”
The Star says it contacted IHSAA Commissioner Bobby Cox, and Cox told a Star reporter administrators at HSE Schools made a verbal appeal to allow this male swimmer to compete in the sectional meet, partly because the girls swim season had come to an end at that point. The Star story does not specify which administrators made the verbal appeal to the IHSAA. The swimmer is being allowed to compete based on the verbal appeal by HSE Schools, based on the Cox statement to the Star.
HSE Schools, in a statement to the Star, said it cannot make any comments on this situation due to federal law, but said, in general, the school district’s policy “includes a thorough investigation and on-going support for the well-being of all involved.”
You can access the entire IndyStar story at this link. (NOTE: If you are not an IndyStar subscriber, you may be limited in the number of stories you may access each month)
Reagan Stafford-Tarin, a parent that helped organize the Saturday protest, provided a brief video interview with me, which you can access below.