Written by Justin Culetu
With statewide lockdowns and quarantines nearing a year for California, multiple public sectors continue to suffer from unrealistic reopening strategies and poor leadership that hinders their ability to resume operations.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, schools have been unable to conduct in-person learning, leaving students longing for social interaction and extracurricular activities. School sports specifically have been hit hard by these lockdown measures, as passionate student-athletes have been struck down by the state multiple times in regards to resuming competition.
This week, a San Diego Superior Court judge gave approval for high school and youth sports to recommence, agreeing with the plaintiffs that the risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 for young athletes is very low compared to professional or collegiate sports.
However, the San Diego sector of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) issued a letter stating that they will not follow the judge’s orders to resume school sports competitions. According to the letter, the reasoning behind this decision is the claim that reopening certain sports will pose disadvantages to schools with less money who may not be able to participate. Ultimately, San Diego CIF is striving for the unfair nature that equity over equality poses.
Rather than focusing on the high school students who finally have the opportunity to resume their sports seasons, something they might never be able to experience again, the San Diego CIF is prohibiting all students from playing sports, because they believe that some may not have the ability to resume.
There is a fine line between the success that equity and equality can produce. The idea of equity ensures that every single person and institution is to have an equal outcome, which is impossible and forces individuals to limit themselves so that others can catch up to them. What the San Diego CIF should be focusing on is equality, making sure that everyone has an even opportunity to succeed. Forcing all of the schools to not play because some will not be able to meet the COVID requirements is unfair for everyone. This decision will stop young athletes of all races, genders, and ages from being able to do what they love.
There is a saying that goes “capitalism is an unequally shared blessing, whereas communism is equally shared misery.” That can be mirrored to this situation. Rather than letting the schools that are able to participate resume competition, and working to facilitate assistance to those that do not yet have the ability to recommence, the San Diego CIF is forcing everyone to be “equitable” and therefore all students must share the misery of not being able to play sports. In the end, the only thing that this decision will do is continue to hurt the well-being of students, who have already suffered so much due to the pandemic.
To contact the San Diego CIF and let them know how you feel about this decision, you can:
Call the office: (858) 292-8165
Email Joe Heinz (Commissioner): jheinz@cifsds.org
Email Todd Cassen (Assistant Commissioner): tcassen@cifsds.org
Email Stacy Candia (Executive Administrative Assistant): scandia@cifsds.org
Email Ron Marquez and Vanessa Meyers (Operations and Events Coordinators): rmarquez@cifsds.org and vmeyers@cifsds.org
