Player with Cerebral Palsy--A must read

[bard]

I just received this from my president of my local official's association. I would sure appreciate any insight or experiences that you guys could share. I'll likely see this kid this year, and I'm certainly going to want to let him play.

A situation has presented itself in the Lafayette area. A local junior high/middle school has a player that has Cerebal Palsy(sp.?). He has participated in basketball since he was young, but basically has no use of one of his arms. In an effort to enable him to participate with his friends, a brace is placed on his hand/wrist area. This brace has a piece of pliable metal to support the hand/wrist area, and then it is wrapped with soft padding.

Clearly, in the Rule Book(Rule 3-5, Art.1), it states that this is an illegal item and should not be permitted. The Case Book, starting on pg. 20, also supports this illegality. In the situations that were described to me, the officials handling this situation were correct in their application of the rules.

However, since we live in a law-suit happy world; we, as officials are put in a tough situation. The American Disabilities Act can come into play, as can liability issues with the schools. In talking to Ray Craft at the IHSAA, here is how he recommends we handle this situation:

I've encouraged the parents to obtain a physicians statement that states "it is not more dangerous......" and to give some medical parameters to support the brace, the benefits, etc. I've also encouraged the school(AD) to draft a letter that they "have followed the process for approval and these are the results". Mainly because they may experience the same resistance when they play at another location. Hopefully, in future games, the coach will have these statements available to the referee. If you note in the rulebook under 'Exception 1' and in the Case Book on pg.21, even though it's referring to headwear; in paragraph (a) it talks a little about this process.

Now we have 'passed on' our liability to the physician, the school, and the IHSAA; and we don't have to be the enforcer of an unpopular decision in regards to a handicapped child wanting to play ball with his friends. However, it still gives us the generalization that referee's judgement may be necessary. So, if we ever feel that other players are truly in danger or placed at a disadvantage, we need to enforce this rule.

Hopefully, this clarifies the local situation that has occured. There may be many more, and my suggestion would be to handle each one separately. By following these guidelines, we can establish a precedent and a consistent application of the rule within our association.