The WIAA is a seriously dysfunctional organization with some idiotic rules and procedures.
Hilbert High School athlete April Gehl has been suspended for five girls basketball games by the school for a tweet Gehl posted on Twitter earlier this week critical of the WIAA,according to the Appleton Post-Crescent.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Gehl told the Post-Crescent. “I was like, ‘Really? For tweeting my opinion?’ I thought it was ridiculous.”
Gehl’s tweet was in response to an email the WIAA sent to schools in December about in-game conduct from high school student sections. Specifically, the WIAA wanted to crack down on any chants or “action directed at opposing teams or their spectators with the intent to taunt, disrespect, distract or entice an unsporting behavior in a response.” Among the chants cited by the WIAA were: “You can’t do that,” “Fundamentals,” “Airball,” “We can’t hear you,” and “Scoreboard.”
Offensive? Maybe.
Justification for a 5 game suspension? No.
This should have been a school issue at best, not the WIAA.
This did not happen on the court, so the WIAA should have no jurisdiction at all.
In the words of Ron White , “you can’t fix stupid” .
The tweet did not refer to the logic of the organization that oversee’s her sport . It’s just anger without thinking .
The athlete almost certainly signs a statement in order to participate in a HS sport that includes exactly this type of behavior , so there’s no surprise that some penalty would be assessed
I tend to agree with Dan on this and that the athlete deserves the same school penalty as any athletic code violation . In WB that was 25% of games for a first offense ,50% for a second and an entire season for a 3rd .
That would be 4 games in a 22 game basketball season if it was a first offense
I am old school when it comes to this kind of behavior from parents or players and my players , coaches and parents signed a commitment letter each year to guarantee that everyone knew the rules from the first day of practice .
Playing for your HS is a privelege . You don’t like the rules , start your own team .
If the parents defend in any way this behavior or fight the suspension , they need remedial parenting classes before they can attend games in the future .
That was the kind of “trash talk” put forth by the students who protested last year at West Bend High School. When they didn’t get what they wanted, they went on a rampage, caused a lock-down, and many of them were suspended from school. This girl sounds like she would have been part of that if she went to West Bend.
I’m not sure in Wisconsin(though I was in sports in H.S. in Wisconsin but before social media), but in Nevada and Arizona where I have taught at, the athletes don’t have sign anything from the WIAA like organizations.
`If she specifically signed something from the WIAA, that may change things but if it was just for the school, then again, it was a bad decision and the school district ought to back up the girl instead of the WIAA.
If Gwen Moore went to a WIAA sporting event and started talking about Walker in her traditional hate, she would be expelled by current WIAA liberal snowflake standards.
Here’s the problem. WIAA is a typical bs board that think it should dictate every aspect of school sports. I’m not defending her actions but when is enough a enough. I can not believe what our country has become. So just out of curiosity , did anyone lose their job for writing the words Merry Christmas in the letter to the schools. That might offend someone who is not Christian. What about using the words “chant”, that might offend someone that maybe Native American. Come people wake up, all that WIAA and public schools for that sake are doing is creating a generation of kids that will not be able to function in society.
If things like this goes unpunished , I share your despair for our youth WW
Without officials , it’s recess.
As for the player , this is graffiti and reflects poorly on her school . Justifying her behavior
Isn’t liberal or conservative , it’s stupid
I agree with you Mark, punish by the school not the WIAA.
Turns out – the school did issue the suspension