District stands firm as debate on immigration law drowns out parents' cries of 'Just let them play'
From Sarah Palin to Rush Limbaugh to Whoopi Goldberg, national attention focused on the decision to keep the Highland Park High School girls basketball team out of an Arizona tournament because of that state's controversial crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Talk shows and bloggers across the country jumped on the story Thursday, with Limbaugh telling listeners, "You have a bunch of childish, immature, liberal little adults running this school who care more about what people think of them and what they think of each other than they do about any kid anywhere."
District 113 administrators hunkered down, refusing to address the firestorm of debate — except through e-mail statements about why they canceled the trip.
"We cannot commit at this time to playing at a venue where some of our students' safety or liberty might be placed at risk because of state immigration law," Superintendent George Fornero said in a letter to parents.
Board members also did not return calls and e-mails seeking their input
on the burgeoning controversy that put the school under the national
spotlight.
"Since undocumented students may be participating on any of our
extracurricular teams, we need to ensure that all of our students can
travel safely, especially in the United States," Suzan Hebson, the
assistant superintendent, said Thursday in an e-mail to
the Tribune.
Earlier this week, Hebson said she did not know if anyone associated
with this year's team is undocumented. The district does not yet know
the make-up of its varsity team next fall. Parents and players said they
knew of no one currently on the team who was in the country illegally.
After the team's best season in 26 years, players have been raising
money to attend the tournament next season in Scottsdale, Ariz., which
is scheduled for late December. But last week an executive team made up
of Fornero, Hebson and other administrators rejected the basketball
team's request. Coach Jolie Bechtel broke the news to her players on
Monday.
Fornero and Hebson on Thursday backed away from any suggestion that the
decision was a political protest, despite Hebson's comment to the
Tribune on Tuesday that the trip "would not be aligned with our beliefs
and values."
"District 113's decisions regarding travel of its students in regard to
extracurricular activities is never 'political,'" Hebson said in her
follow-up e-mail.
Meanwhile, former vice presidential candidate Palin was making the media
rounds, following up on her criticism of school district officials
during an appearance in Rosemont on Wednesday evening.
"An economic and political boycott of one of our sister states is not a
way to secure our borders," Palin told the Rosemont audience, urging the
players to, "go rogue, girls."
"They're using their own kids to advance a fraudulent, phony agenda,"
Limbaugh told his radio audience, according to a transcript on his Web
site. "So here you have a bunch of liberals that run this school who are
no different than your garden-variety liberals anywhere else."
For Michael
Evans, father of basketball player Lauren Evans, the political
bickering now swirling around the canceled trip is exactly what parents
did not want to happen.
"I've gotten calls from (Sean) Hannity and (Greta) Van Susteren," Evans
said, referring to Fox
News commentators. "I heard Whoopi Goldberg talking about it on
'The View' this morning."
"Shouldn't they have had this conversation with the parents first before
they just canceled it?" Goldberg said on the show. "It would behoove
the folks, those parents who are upset, to get to their school and say
you cannot make these decisions without talking to us and at least
allowing us to talk to our children. Because they did all this work and
you (school officials) made the decision."
But Evans says he isn't looking for support from celebrities or pundits.
"What I don't want to do is politicize one way or another this
tournament," the parent said. "That's what I was upset about: It was
politicized (by school district administrators). Just let them play
basketball."
Administrators say they are seeking another out-of-state tournament for
the team to play in next season.
But now it has gone beyond basketball in Highland Park, an upscale North
Shore community that includes the heavily Hispanic town of Highwood in
its educational district. If the national discourse is intense, the
debate locally has been equally energetic.
As students flowed from the high school on Thursday afternoon, they were
greeted by reporters, photographers and a TV satellite truck from Fox
News Channel as it prepared for a live broadcast.
"I feel bad for the girls," said Evan Deahl, 17, a junior. "They worked
hard to get all the funds together to go on this trip. But on the other
hand we need to show support for our community. Many people don't know
that Highwood feeds into our community and that Highwood has a high
proportion of Latino students."
Jessie Rooth, 17, a junior, said she's in the band, which went to China
last year.
"I don't think the team should be stopped from going to Arizona seeing
as how we were allowed to go to China," Rooth said. "There are issues in
China with communism. Before we left we talked about certain things and
how we couldn't act certain ways. Arizona has its issues, and there
shouldn't be a correlation between the kids not being able to go just
because of the laws in Arizona."
Marissa Medansky, 17, a junior, applauded the administrators' decision.
"We have a very diverse student population, and it's our responsibility
to protect everyone who goes to this school regardless of their race,
regardless of their documentation status," she said.
"I think the media attention is unfortunate," she added. "I think the
district did a brave thing, and it's horrible how it's being
misconstrued by all these media outlets. There are two sides to the
story, and they're only choosing to tell one side of the story, that the
team can't go."
Highland Park resident Neil Codell, whose daughter attends the high
school, questioned the decision to cancel the trip and the
superintendent's refusal to speak publicly about it.
Codell, former superintendent for Niles Township High School District
219, called the trip a "teachable moment" in which the basketball team
could talk to Arizona residents about their new law and its
ramifications.
"I don't see the imminent danger in Arizona except for the fact that it
is a state that has embarrassed itself," Codell said.
jjlong@tribune.com
lblack@tribune.com
Freelance reporter Brian
Cox contributed.
via Chicago Tribune
