Two Madison West college students with disabilities reduce from swim staff

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – Every highschool scholar needs to really feel included — however two Madison West households say their daughters are left on the sidelines this yr.

On Monday, the 2 households introduced their considerations to the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) college board assembly, after they are saying their college students with disabilities have been denied a good probability to remain on the highschool’s swim staff.

One of these college students is Asha Shukla, a senior at Madison West. During her sophomore yr, she was accepted on the swim staff regardless of residing with Down syndrome, in response to her dad and mom Tora Frank and Raj Shukla.

“She swims with them at meets in exhibition capacity,” Asha’s father Raj mentioned. “She’s not scoring points for the team, but she is there cheering her team on. She is there receiving their love while she’s out there swimming. She’s part of the community in a way she never had been.”

Asha’s dad and mom mentioned the coaches and different ladies on the staff welcomed her in a method that match her skills.

“Those things mattered so much to her, to feel part of that community,” her mom Tora mentioned. “And that, for a lot of kids with disabilities, particularly for Asha, that’s incredibly special. That’s what we all wanted in high school, to be part of something.”

But this yr, Tora and Raj discovered Asha was reduce from the staff due to capability points. They mentioned the varsity advised them that a lot of college students needed to check out for the staff. If Asha needed to remain on the staff, she must do the identical tryout as the opposite college students with out lodging.

“That hit us hard because her body is not built for that,” Tora mentioned. “She stands at 4-foot-8 inches tall, she has joint laxity and low muscle tone, like she’s not going to swim that far, that fast. She just will not do it.”

Asha’s household mentioned the transfer feels unfair.

“To say then, that in the face of these constraints, the first things we’re going to do is hold everyone to the exact same standard, when those standards are effectively going to discriminate against almost every kid with a disability.”

The identical factor occurred to Aurelia Bergstrom, a freshman at Madison West with a neurogenetic dysfunction of unknown origin known as SWAN.

“She’s just starting her experience in high school, and it starts with a door slammed in her face,” Raj mentioned.

Before Monday’s assembly, Raj and Tora reached out to the varsity district for a proof.

“We were sent a list of reasons per federal law why Asha won’t swim,” Raj mentioned. “Implied in there was Asha’s participation would somehow harm the team, harm its competitiveness. But then we were provided no evidence that was actually happening.”

WMTV reached out to MMSD’s spokesperson for remark. The college district didn’t reply to our request for an interview, however as a substitute despatched a press release, writing:

Now, the households hope college district officers will change their minds, so their daughters can proceed competing within the sport they love.

“There are bigger moments in life where you get to decide who you are, and what you’re about,” Raj mentioned. “The district has a moment like that in front of it. It gets to decide whether all the words about equity that we speak mean something, and everyone’s watching.”

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