Families call foul play on private-public school sports divide

Justin Kurpeikis says that raising his four children in a religious environment is the “most important thing,” prompting him to enroll them in a Catholic school in the Pittsburgh area. However, the school’s smaller size means fewer athletic opportunities for activities like football, he said.

Kurpeikis hoped his children could participate in nearby public school athletics programs through the state’s interscholastic organization like many other nonpublic school students do. But the organization has not granted his children equal access.

Last Tuesday, Kurpeikis and two other Catholic families filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), objecting to its “custom, practice, and policy” of excluding students from parochial schools from participating in its programs. The PIAA, which governs high school sports across the state, allows students from charter schools, homeschools, and cyber schools to participate, but it has not accepted students from religious schools.

According to the suit, the athletic program’s policy violates the families’ free exercise rights. They are asking to have equal access to the state’s athletics program.

“If this goes the way that we hope, then these kids will have the ability to participate in the sports and get the education in the place that they want,” Kurpeikis said. “I don’t know why anyone would want to limit kids’ ability to participate in sports.”

C. Grier Yartz, another parent in the suit, said that his son had hoped to play football at a public high school while attending a local Catholic school in the State College school district. But the PIAA didn’t allow his son to participate.

“It doesn’t seem right, because the homeschoolers and the kids who go to [charter schools] were able to participate,” Yartz said. “We want to be treated like the other kids—we pay taxes in the district.”

In the suit, Yartz, Kurpeikis, and one other family contend that the PIAA forces the families to choose between their religious beliefs and an interscholastic sports program available to many others. “PIAA has not provided [families] with an explanation why it is discriminating against parochial school students while providing numerous exceptions for other students,” the lawsuit states. “PIAA does not have a legitimate basis to justify its disparate treatment.”

Thomas Breth, an attorney representing the families, said that it was “frustrating” when the PIAA didn’t grant these families’ request for a “pretty simple, pretty clear” exception.

Without this exception, parents are forced to have difficult conversations with their kids about whether they should go to a school that supports their beliefs or to one that offers programs such as softball or lacrosse, he said.

“They should not be denied a generally available right because of their religious decisions,” Breth said. “The PIAA is denying them the right to participate in their home school district’s PIAA activities solely because they’ve chosen to pursue and take advantage of their religious rights.”

Breth added that if this case is successful, it could affect all students attending religious schools anywhere in the state.

The courts have long held that the government can’t treat religious schools worse than secular ones, especially when the secular schools already have exceptions carved out for them, said Thomas Berg, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Because of that, he thinks these families have a “very plausible” case.

Last week’s suit comes after Yartz and another family settled a related case in State College in June in the same court. In that case, a consent order ended a State College Area School District policy that kept out students attending Catholic or other religious schools, despite allowing homeschooled and charter school students to freely participate in extracurricular and co-curricular activities.

The consent order does not extend to the PIAA or outside of the State College area, wrote District Judge Matthew W. Brann. He said that parents would have to resolve any issues with the PIAA on their own.

Kurpeikis said that last week’s lawsuit affects the whole community, not just his family. “We want the rest of the roadblocks broken down so that everyone can choose the best pathway they think there is for their kids,” Kurpeikis said. “What we would like is just parent choice.”