Saturday, November 28, 2009

Not a lot of movement in Ohio

Here's an update on the softball field situation at Chillicothe High School in Ohio. I blogged about the letter sent by the ACLU on behalf of a parent to the school district which complained about the sub par conditions of the practice and playing fields of the CHS softball team.
Not too much is happening, apparently. There's a meeting later this month to discuss the situation and the superintendent says he is working on it, and is hopeful there will be a temporary solution by the time the spring season rolls around.
In other words, not much is happening. (And I have doubts about whether anything will happen by spring given the tone I am reading in the superintendent's comments.) And I usually do not bother to report on articles which really tell me very little, except this one I found blog-worthy for two reasons.
First, the above mentioned lack of movement. It seems the ACLU's letter to the district did not shake them that much. Perhaps if someone files an OCR complaint which would subject the entire athletic program to an investigation that would get them moving. They should be grateful it is only the softball team that is complaining right now.
Second, the article spent very little time on the actual softball issues. When the writer started talking about the comparisons to the baseball facilities which have themselves been erratic due to construction, he never went back to the issues with the softball fields. It became an article about renovations to other facilities including all the football repairs that need to be done. In other words, it became a discussion, in some ways, of the economy and lack of funds but it was also about how the boys' facilities would cost a lot of repair/renovate. This kind of framework makes me wonder just how much is going to be done to improve the girls' softball field come April. Hope I am wrong.