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University School of Milwaukee at Martin Luther highlights
Highlights from Martin Luther’s 35-0 win over University School of Milwaukee on Sept. 5, 2025.
- Two Madison West High School college students with disabilities weren’t positioned on the ladies swim workforce this season.
- One pupil, a senior with Down Syndrome, had beforehand been a non-scoring member for 2 years.
- The households and swim group voiced their issues at a current faculty board assembly.
- The faculty district acknowledged it’s working with the households to discover a resolution and is dedicated to inclusion.
Parents of two Madison West teenagers are involved a couple of potential rollback in protections for college kids residing with disabilities amid an ongoing battle with the district to reinstate their daughters to Madison West High School’s women swim workforce.
Asha Shukla, a senior residing with Down Syndrome, has swam with the Regents’ women swimming and diving workforce the previous two seasons as a non-scoring member.
“She’s an exhibition swimmer. She’s not swimming in the same sort of competitive universe that her other typically developing teammates do, so she’s never had to try out,” Asha’s father Raj Shukla mentioned.
Raj and Asha’s mom, Tora Frank, reached out to the college in early August when it was communicated that there have been tryouts for the workforce this yr. They inquired to see if Asha was amongst those that must earn a spot on the workforce by way of that course of. Asha’s dad and mom acquired no reply till after tryouts have been performed for the remainder of the workforce, at which level they have been knowledgeable there was no room for Asha on the workforce this yr.
“She was being lumped in with a bunch of different cuts that were happening on the team, and we understand sometimes cuts are appropriate for a team,” Raj Shukla mentioned. “The thing is, there are laws in place that protect people with disabilities who are often ignored in these processes, who aren’t offered reasonable accommodations given their disabilities, and are often kind of pushed aside.”
Freshman hoping to affix program additionally disregarded
Aurelia Bergstrom, a freshman hoping to affix Asha on the Madison West swim workforce, has had an identical expertise over the previous few weeks. Bergstrom lives with a low incidence neurogenetic dysfunction of unknown causes that falls beneath the class of Syndrome Without A Name (SWAN).
Her mom, Krisjon Olson, defined that Aurelia would fall into the S14 classification of paralympic swimming, which Paralympic.org defines as “swimmers (that) have an intellectual impairment, which typically leads to the athletes having difficulties with regards to pattern recognition, sequencing, and memory, or having a slower reaction time, which impact on sport performance in general.”
Aurelia has however discovered success and kinship with friends within the sport of swimming, together with her participation in an area swim league run by present Madison West swim coach Amanda Ellmaker. Her household thought it will be solely pure for Aurelia to observe in Asha’s footsteps and be a part of this system in an identical non-scoring capability.
After initially being informed throughout a spring of 2025 Individualized Education Program transition assembly that Asha and Aurelia would share a lane in observe this fall, that understanding modified as summer time drew to an in depth. Aurelia attended an orientation assembly for highschool student-athletes and got here dwelling with the knowledge that there was going to be swim workforce tryouts.
Aurelia’s household reached out to the college and requested if she would want to check out and was informed she wouldn’t need to on account of her being a non-scoring exhibition member of the workforce. The household then acquired an electronic mail after tryouts have been performed Aug. 24 stating that on account of there being extra curiosity than anticipated within the workforce, Aurelia can be required to check out.
Olson mentioned the household adopted up with the college to request info on what lodging can be supplied on the tryout and didn’t obtain a solution for every week. With the beginning of observe for the season imminent, the household adopted up once more looking for clarification. The reply they acquired was not what they’d been hoping for.
“It became clear that the accommodations they were willing to provide during tryouts were just procedural, they were not substantive accommodations,” Olson mentioned. “At that point we let Aurelia know that, in effect, that would have cut her from the team.”
Lack of motion impressed feedback at Sept. 8 faculty board assembly
As a decision that may permit Asha and Aurelia to affix the workforce remained doubtful, the swim group confirmed as much as assist one in every of their very own throughout public remark on the Sept. 8 meeting of the Madison Board of Education.
Flanked by members of each the ladies and boys swim groups, a few of whom delivered their very own remarks of assist as properly, Asha delivered her case.
“Being part of a team makes me feel like I am part of something bigger than me, a community. I have Down syndrome, meaning my body works differently than other people. I am extra flexible, it takes a lot of energy to build muscles and a little more time to communicate with others, but I know how to work hard, and when I have a chance, I know how to win,” Asha mentioned partly to the board.
The eruption of applause when Asha concluded her three-minute remarks got here as no shock to Raj Shukla.
“This community is a community. We have each other’s backs and you could see it in spades at that meeting. We have felt nothing but that since Asha got involved in swimming and since Asha got involved with the West high school swim team. It’s a remarkable group of people. The other side of this, though, and it’s a sad side of this in some ways, but it took something like this and an issue like this for people to pay attention to how marginalized people with disabilities are in life and in the school district even, despite the efforts of some of her teachers, her coaches and her principal,” Raj Shukla mentioned.
District acknowledges ongoing state of affairs in assertion
The Journal Sentinel contacted Madison Metropolitan School District looking for an interview or remark to verify the standing of Asha and Aurelia’s reinstatement, and was supplied with the next assertion by senior govt director of communications Edell Fiedler:
“Individual school athletic programs, in this case Madison West, manage their team rosters based on established criteria. Students or families who have concerns with athletics-related decisions, are encouraged to discuss them with the team’s coach. West Principal Dan Kigeya has connected with the families involved to listen to their concerns and determine a solution. The school district’s role is to ensure that all state statutes and district policies are followed, and as a district, we are committed to providing all students with opportunities to participate in both academic and extracurricular activities. We strive to uphold the principles of inclusion and accessibility for all students, aligning with the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other relevant legislation.“
An outreach to Madison West women swimming coach Ellmaker requesting touch upon Sept. 10 didn’t obtain a reply.
Parents stay involved as reinstatement hangs in limbo
While communication over the previous few days with the college has been trending positively, based on Raj and Krisjon, a timeframe for reinstatement for Asha and Aurelia has not been supplied as of the night of Sept. 11. There is cautious optimism amongst each households that their daughters will return to the pool with Madison West, however a priority for others in comparable conditions additionally lingers.
“There are a lot of kids whose needs are being ignored throughout the district and don’t have the network that Asha has built, the network of supporters that Asha has built and nurtured throughout her life. That don’t have parents that are willing to be as loud as we are, and who aren’t as intimidated by legal language that the school district sends their way. Not everybody has those benefits and it’s a shame to me that the community does not pay attention to those other issues that are affecting kids with disabilities or kids who just don’t have resources,” Raj Shukla mentioned. “I hope this expands people’s consciousness of this stuff and that we can be a little more deliberate, a little more compassionate in the way that we make decisions.”
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its authentic location you may go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/high-school/2025/09/12/madison-west-parents-fight-for-disabled-daughters-to-be-on-swim-team/86090297007/
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