The family of a high school basketball star who was recently booted from the Seattle school district over residency issues has filed suit to get their son back in to Garfield High School.
Wroten was kicked out of Garfield on December 5th after school district investigators found he was living outside of the district in Renton. Last week, about 200 Garfield students walked out of class and marched down to district headquarters to protest the district’s decision.
In the suit, filed in King County Superior Court on December 12th, Wroten’s family alleges the district has violated a settlement agreement which would have allowed Wroten to attend Garfield during the 2008-2009 school year. The Wrotens’ suit notes that Tony has been a student in the Seattle school district since he was in first grade
Wroten, a top-ranked basketball prospect, attended Garfield during the 2007-2008 school year by listing a relative’s address on his school paperwork. Over the summer, Wroten—then living in Renton—applied for non-resident enrollment in the district but was denied because 65 other sophomores living in the district were already on the school’s waiting list.
According to the suit, the Wrotens appealed the district’s decision and rented a house about a mile away from Garfield. However, Seattle School District spokesman David Tucker says district security officers conducted an investigation and found that Wroten was still living in Renton. .
The Wrotens have asked a judge to allow Tony to be reinstated as a student at Garfield. In teh meantime, Tucker says Wroten could be eligible to attend Cleveland, Chief Sealth or Rainier Beach, which (shock!) do not currently have waiting lists.
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sports are for choads
Cheaters never win!
I’m surprised he wouldn’t be going to Rainier Beach already. Strong program that produces NBA talent. Downside is it may not exist in the next year or so.
Seriously? Someone actually set up a fake residence for a high school student to scam their way into Garfield? For real? Over basketball???
Man, I must have led a sheltered childhood.
One of the best things about America is we can sue anyone for anything.
One of the worst things about America is we can sue anyone for anything.
It’s all about the scholarships and the sports contracts down the road, sadly.
Not the academics – which is the reason why we actually have these things called schools.
Well, the important thing here is the basketball program. High school sports — that’s why we’re all here, right? Something tells me Wroten’s interest in Garfield doesn’t have a lot to do with academics.
How about this: let him in, and then shut down league basketball. Spend the money on art and music programs instead.
League sports are destroying public education.
People don’t really want education. Not as much as they want basketball. I went to Gonzaga and I can tell you, classwork sometimes got in the way of basketball for most players. Or at least it could have if they had allowed it to.
It is kind of fascist to force parents and kids to participate in the pretense of school when they don’t want school. Is it even possible to impart knowledge so someone who doesn’t want to learn? Why try?
If they’re that desperate to get him into Garfield, why didn’t they move into that house they rented?
@8: And once they’re 18, continuing school or not is their choice. But let’s get rid of “college sports,” which are a farce; why should an educational institution divert resources away from people who are there for education toward people who are there for sports?
i predict SPS will cave like it always does when (even a small group of non tax-paying) people complain loudly enough.
keshmeshi for the win, with elenchos right behind.
trying to explain to someone the value of education when TV and music shows them only fools take that path and they won’t get the hot babes is a total waste of time.
Now, I am not a lawyer but do they even have legal standing to sue for this? If they moved out of the district, wouldn’t that mean new schools for the kids? Am I missing something?
Jonah,
I have no idea why this is even news. This is foolish on the parents’ part. This young man needs an education not a basketball team to play for. One doesn’t need to see “Hoop Dreams” to know Tony Wroten has an extraordinarily low chance to play pro basketball. Is he even 15 y/o?
“How about this: let him in, and then shut down league basketball. Spend the money on art and music programs instead.”
Fnarf are you joking? Garfield is an arts magnet and people like quincy jones pour tons of money into arts and music there every year.
As for the district, well…I’m glad they are spending money on frivolous lawsuits and not on preventing school closures. Go SPS!
@3. He’s not going to the Beach because he’s way more likely to get shot or stabbed or jumped there. The school may have produced NBA talent in the past, but now it’s mainly producing the future criminals and gang members of Seattle.
@ All of you sports-hating bitches.
Sure, sports may not have the “cultural relevance” of art or the theatre, but it keeps kids, particularly inner-city kids, off the streets and involved in something that builds community, establishes a strong sense of self and team and builds confidence, self-esteem and many other positive qualities. When I was a kid, poetry didn’t help me with shit (Paul Constant, the Hitler of poetry, knows what I’m talking about.); sports did: it got me off of the couch and kept me out of trouble, taught me that we all have roles (Some of us are the stars ballplayers and others the three-point specialists.) and responsibilities and, as a youth coach, I learned how to be a leader and how to teach others.
I know it’s hard to admit that sports could have more value than the beer commercials and muscles you reduce it to, especially since you all were probably the scrawny, unathletic kids that were picked last.
He can’t be very good, otherwise he would already play for Rainier Beach.
“If school sport is to become a training ground for moral development, then coaches need to be trained in ethics and learn how to reward athletes for ethical behavior.”
Miracle and Rees – Lessons of the Locker Room
I’m definitely not a sports-hater, but I have to be honest about it; my high-school coaches weren’t building the kind of “character” that people seem to expect. We were supposed to hate our opponents; cheating was part of “whatever it takes”; we were supposed to be as brutal as possible, and that didn’t stay on the field. I know which of my teammates were rapists, alcoholics, cheaters and bullies; it isn’t a pretty list. For that matter – I’m not proud of how I had to behave to hide the fact that I’m gay.
High-school sports CAN be a great thing, but it shouldn’t be a training ground for a a few professional athletes at the expense of creating hundreds of thousands of men with a warped character.