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July 8, 2005
 
WV Supreme Court Upholds Prep Sports Ban for Home–Schooled Students
 
by Grant Traylor
Huntington News Network Sportswriter
 
Hinton, WV (HNN) –State education officials now have the authority to keep home–schooled children from participating in interscholastic athletics after a ruling by the state Supreme Court on Wednesday, July 6, 2005.
 
The Supreme Court confirmed that a rule by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission to keep home–schooled children from playing prep sports was constitutionally sound.
 
The 3–2 decision upholds that officials can keep home–schooled children from playing on the basis that the students are not enrolled at a school full–time. Only full–time students are allowed to participate in interscholastic events.
 
Lawyers for the state education officials used the foundation that home–schooled children have no academic requirements other than those of their parents as their strongest arguments.
 
The lack of a defined grading scale means that, if the WVSSAC rule was rejected, parents could take their children out of public schools without damaging their athletic eligibility.
 
"The parents of home–schooled children have voluntarily chosen not to participate in the free public school system," Justice Robin Davis said. "In making this choice, these parents have also chosen to forego the privileges incidental to a public education, one of which is the opportunity to qualify for participation in interscholastic athletics."
 
Arguments in the home–schooled athletics case stemmed from a September 2003 ruling from Kanawha County Circuit Judge Duke Bloom that allowed a home–schooled middle–school student to wrestle for Mannington Middle School.
 
The quick ruling by the Supreme Court comes before the 2005 school year in which that wrestler, Aaron Jones, will be moving onto high school. Jones had hoped of competing as a wrestler at the high school level, but with the ruling, those hopes have taken a hit.
 
Justices Larry Starcher and Brent Benjamin opposed the ruling and will file separate opinions in the case.