Today I received word that our complaint against Century High School and their biased treatment of number one son with ADD was investigated. What did the MDE OCR find? Nothing. Century High School Coach Houghton treated my son fairly and just like every other player. No discrimination occurred. My son was not treated differently from any other player.
Despite the fact that we had proof that he lied, the MDE OCR found no violation of the law. Coach Houghton said son didn't show for practice, wasn't placed on JV in the first place, never showed for practice, didn't intervene when son was being clobbered in the goalie box, and didn't yell at son. All this we had evidence to the contrary and the MDE OCR (Lauren Skerrit) found that Coach Houghton did nothing wrong. He treated every player the same.
This begs the question, should any parent let their son play soccer for Coach Houghton? If Coach Houghton can run his little losing soccer team in this manner, should any parent let their child play soccer? If Coach Houghton can lie, cheat, demean, belittle, retaliate, and ignore people with disabilities, should any parent let their child play soccer for Century?
As a person of color, when I come up against such blatant discrimination, I prefer to test the law. After all, weren't the laws made to help people like me find justice? According to Steven Newcomb the laws were not made to help people like me or my son. The laws were made by people who exercise the belief in the doctrine of discovery. The laws were created by those who believe in domination and that people of color are "subhuman". The laws were made by people who believe in a "superior race" and the laws were designed to keep people of color in line.
Despite my proof, what I did not realize, what I did not remember was that the burden of proof is twice that of one Coach Houghton, a white male. I am a woman of color. My son is of color. He is beautiful. He was voted Utility Man by his soccer peers. He is an awesome player and that his what his peers said. Yet, when we cried foul about team placement, unfair treatment, utter disregard for his 504 plan, yelling fits by Coach Houghton, retaliation and so on, the Century High School administration (all white) came to the aide of Coach Houghton (not my son who was a student there) and the MDE OCR (more white people) found no discrimination on the basis of disability or race.
When will I ever learn that I as a person of color will never find justice when appealing to the dominant culture (soon to become a minority) armed with their doctrine of discovery world view and the laws they designed to keep people like me under oppression?
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