Star Student Not Allowed To Play On High School Basketball Team

A parent is concerned that the Canutillo Independent School District is forbidding his daughter from playing basketball at Canutillo High School, calling the decision unfair. The district said its decision is for the best interest of all students, not just one.

Sarah Joyner, a high school senior, attends the Northwest Early College High School, a high school located at El Paso Community College that allows students to earn college credit, along with their high school courses.

From the time the students enroll, the district explicitly tells them that no sports will be offered at the academically intense institution.

Joyner, in three years, has earned her college associate degree and finished her high school course work. She now attends the University of Texas at El Paso through the early college high school.

“This is what she went to the early college high school to get. She has fulfilled her part of the bargain,” her father, John Joyner, said while holding his daughter’s associate diploma during an interview Tuesday.

He wants the district to allow Sarah to play with the Canutillo High School basketball team while she attends the early college high school. She’s been playing in basketball leagues since the age of 6.

“Sarah is one of our best students. She’s certainly capable and (is) one of our top performers. And the fact that she has received her associate’s degree is proof that she has received a quality education and she has taken advantage of the opportunities at Canutillo,” said district spokesman Gustavo Reveles. “The issue here is she’s not a student at Canutillo High School.”

But Sarah’s father said his daughter can still legally play at Canutillo.

“The University Interscholastic League says that if a school does not provide an activity for a student, that student is allowed to participate in that activity at the next closest high school,” Joyner said. However, the school board must still approve the move.

Joyner said Canutillo Superintendent Damon Murphy, in a meeting with parents in June, had told them that students who had already received their associate degree would be allowed to play sports at nearby Canutillo High School. Reveles said Murphy told parents the issue would be taken up by the board but did not promise a policy change.

After allowing Sarah to practice with the basketball team at the beginning of the school year in August, the Canutillo School Board, on Oct. 19, did not approve allowing Sarah to play at CHS. She stopped practicing with the team on the same day the board made the decision, her father said.

“For them to take away what you’ve wanted the most, when you’ve given them everything that you have and then they just tell you no, it’s probably the worst feeling you can ever feel,” Sarah said.

“Establishing a pattern of acceptance would probably not be in the best interest of Northwest Early College High School. She should be awarded all of the academic opportunities that are available to her, and allowing her to play basketball would side-track her from those opportunities,” Reveles said.

Joyner argued that if you don’t allow the students to participate until they get their associate degree, which he said is understandable, then what is the reason for not allowing these people to pursue their dreams after they have earned their associate degree.

“We feel we’re expanding the opportunities that we offer her. Her enrollment at UTEP is on the condition of Northwest Early College. The fact that she has opportunities at the college level is because of her opportunities at Northwest,” Reveles said.

Sarah’s father also said he’s concerned that the decision might have been influenced by a school board member whose daughter is on the Canutillo High School basketball team.

“They feel that it’s unfair for Sarah to come in and take playing time from the other girls on the team,” he said.

“I cant say whether coach Ballinger would play Sarah more than another student, what I can say is that the school board made a decision, and it made its decision based on the overall benefit to all students and not just one,” said Reveles.