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Pepin, Riverhills can't appeal FHSAA ruling

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 28, 2001

TAMPA -- A week after ruling that Riverhills Christian could suffer serious penalties for using 10 players who attend the charter school Pepin Academy, the Florida High School Activities Association denied both schools' bid for an appeal.

In a letter to the schools' principals, FHSAA associate commissioner Dan Boyd said there could be no appeal (originally scheduled for Oct. 4) because "Neither the Sectional Appeals Committee nor the Board of Directors have the authority to waive a provision of Florida Statutes."

Pepin Academy principal JoAnn Shaw said she was exasperated, feeling as if another door had been unfairly shut on her school, which doesn't have a football team.

"We've tried to follow the rules and the laws," Shaw said. "We believed the laws allowed our students to play football at another school because our school, a charter school, doesn't have a football team."

Shaw said a state law was passed in July allowing students from charter schools that didn't have sports to play sports at the public schools in the district where the students lived.

The law Shaw cited, however, does not directly address private schools.

Shaw said Thursday's turn of events disturbed her even more because a request for her students to play at public schools was also denied in a letter from the FHSAA dated Aug. 23.

"That's the one thing that nobody seems to be talking about, the fact that we tried to get our students to play at their public schools for which they would be permitted to play under the law," she said.

"If they just would have allowed our students to play at the appropriate public schools in the first place then that would have been fine with us.

"The bottom line is that we're just doing what we think is best for these kids. These kids aren't going to turn some team into a state title contender. These students just want to play some ball and that's all we were trying to do, give them a chance to play some ball. ...

"We will have to look into some other avenues because if we try to play for Riverhills we could get them in trouble. And we don't want to do that.

"Riverhills has just been caught in the middle of all this."

Boyd, who didn't address possible penalties for the schools, could not be reached for comment.

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