[simple simon]

WASHINGTON — A high school track star has been disqualified from a meet because officials said the custom-made outfit she wears to conform to her Muslim faith violated competition rules.


Juashaunna Kelly, a senior at the District of Columbia's Theodore Roosevelt High School, has the fastest mile and two-mile times of any girls' runner in the city this winter. She was disqualified from Saturday's Montgomery Invitational indoor track and field meet.


Kelly was wearing the same uniform she has worn for the past three seasons while running for Theodore Roosevelt's cross-country and track teams. The custom-made, one-piece blue and orange unitard covers her head, arms, torso and legs. Over the unitard, she wears the same orange and blue T-shirt and shorts as her teammates.


The outfit allows her to compete while adhering to her Muslim faith, which forbids displaying any skin other than her face and hands.


"It's not special," Kelly said. "It doesn't make me perform better."
But meet director Tom Rogers said Kelly's uniform violated rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which sanctioned the event. Uniforms are required to be "a single-solid color and unadorned, except for a single school name or insignia no more than 2 1/4 inches," he said.
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Rogers said he knew Kelly was wearing the uniform for religious reasons and that he offered her several options to conform to the rules while still respecting her faith, including placing a plain T-shirt over her unitard and then wearing her team uniform over it.


Kelly's mother, Sarah, and Roosevelt Coach Tony Bowden disputed that account. They said officials made several demands of her daughter before Rogers made his decision.


"First, they said she had to take her hood off," Sarah Kelly said. "Then, they said she can't have anything with logos displayed. Then, they said she had to turn it inside out. When I told them that there weren't any logos on it, they said she had to put a plain white T-shirt on over it."


Juashaunna Kelly has worn the same uniform for three years without any problems, including at last year's Montgomery Invitational. Rogers said officials must have missed the uniform last year.


"It wasn't a problem last year, and it's a problem this year? Make me understand why," Bowden said.


Kelly, whose 1,600 time of 5 minutes 17.49 seconds and 3,200 time of 12:00.81 are the fastest of any D.C. girl, was hoping to run a time fast enough at the Montgomery Invitational to qualify for the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York on Feb. 8-9. Bowden said the team has no other meets scheduled that would allow her to qualify for the event, which attracts dozens of college recruiters.

FOXNews.com - D.C. High School Track Star Disqualified Over Muslim Uniform - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

[simple simon]

well this just sucks .... i hope New Balance invites her anyway

[Quality88]

Originally Posted by simple simon

well this just sucks .... i hope New Balance invites her anyway

Yeah... that would just make that Rogers idiot just ol so happy.

[Bette]

rules are rules but this is just discrimination.
She wore it before but she cant now?

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Originally Posted by Bette

rules are rules but this is just discrimination.
She wore it before but she cant now?

Because some pin head can't see the big picture...as far as I am concern, its a freakin handicap to run that way in a 1 or 2 mile race...extra clothing to carry, and extra heat the body has to get ride off...if she can run and win like that anyway, let the freakin kid run...

[EmpireWF]

This screams of a potential lawsuit. No matter how you slice it, she is being persecuted (in this context, being prohibited from participating in her public school's athletic squad) because of her religious beliefs.

[Lefty Noob]

Originally Posted by Gotham Dark Knight

Because some pin head can't see the big picture...as far as I am concern, its a freakin handicap to run that way in a 1 or 2 mile race...extra clothing to carry, and extra heat the body has to get ride off...if she can run and win like that anyway, let the freakin kid run...

It's most definitely a handicap. She wouldn't be able to perspire propertly, and would risk dehydration.

[FRAN122]

NFHS Responds to Maryland Track Situation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Becky Oakes
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (January 17, 200 - Last Saturday, Juashuanna Kelly, a runner on the girls track team at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C., elected not to compete in the Montgomery Invitational indoor track and field meet in Maryland after meet officials advised her that she would need to replace her undergarment because it violated track and field playing rules published by the National Federation of State High School Association (NFHS).
The NFHS issues the following statement regarding this incident:
"The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the national leadership organization for high school sports and fine arts activities, writes playing rules in 17 sports for boys and girls competition at the high school level, including track and field.
"Rule 4-3-1-d of the NFHS Track and Field and Cross Country Rules Book states that 'Any visible garment(s) worn underneath the uniform top or bottom shall be a single, solid color and unadorned except for 1) a single school name or insignia no more than 2¼ square inches with no dimension more than 2¼ inches and 2) a single, visible manufacturer's logo as per NFHS rules.'
"Using preventive officiating, meet officials at the Montgomery Invitational checked uniforms prior to the events to make sure they complied with NFHS uniform rules. Since Kelly's one-piece undergarment was multi-colored (blue, orange, white), it was in violation of the uniform rules. The meet officials did not disqualify Kelly; they informed her she would have to replace the multi-colored undergarment with a single-colored undergarment, an option which she declined and, thus, did not compete.
"The head covering, which was a part of Kelly's one-piece undergarment, nor the length of the undergarment were in violation of NFHS rules. She could have worn the same style of undergarment, with a head covering, as long as the undergarment was one color throughout the entire piece of clothing. The NFHS track uniform rule was put in place for consistency across the board and for ease in identifying runners at the finish line. Multi-colored undergarments cause greater identification problems for track officials.
"The track uniform is a point of emphasis by the NFHS this year in an effort to have more consistent and widespread enforcement of the rule. Because of her Muslim faith, there were reports that her uniform undergarment was ruled unacceptable on religious grounds. While Kelly's faith requires her to cover all parts of the body except her hands and face, a single-colored undergarment with a hood would have been acceptable both from an NFHS rules standpoint as well as meeting the requirements of her Muslim faith. NFHS | NFHS Responds to Maryland Track Situation

The Coach should have known the rules. The Coach and school should have supplied a legal uniform. The Coach should have taken responsibility for placing the athlete in a situation where she could have been disqualified.