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Obama Admin. Creates Right for Disabled Students to Play Sports
Breitbart.com ^ | 1-25-2013 | Tony Lee

Posted on 01/26/2013 7:59:57 AM PST by servo1969

School districts that do not provide deaf students "a visual cue" alongside a starter pistol to enable them to compete on the track team or create basketball and tennis leagues for students in wheelchairs will be in violation of federal law and could lose government funding.

On Friday, the Obama administration declared disabled students "have the right" to "an equal opportunity to participate in their schools' extracurricular activities." In essence, the Obama administration established the right for disabled students to play wheelchair basketball or wheelchair tennis.

The U.S. Department of Education sent a guidance letter to schools, school districts, and universities informing them of the new mandate, which noted that a "2010 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that many students with disabilities are not afforded an equal opportunity to participate in athletics, and therefore may not have equitable access to the health and social benefits of athletic participation."

Seth Galanter, the Department’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, said the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will enforce Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. He specifically noted that the Act was a federal law “designed to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in programs and activities (including traditional public schools and charter schools) that receive Federal financial assistance.”

If school districts and universities do not provide accommodations the OCR deems sufficient, they could lose federal funding. The mandate is being compared to Title IX, which deemed that no person should be excluded on the basis of sex from participation in, "denied the benefits of," or "subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ada; disability; doe; handicapped; obama; school
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So every high school must have a wheelchair basketball team? A wheelchair football team?
1 posted on 01/26/2013 8:00:06 AM PST by servo1969
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To: servo1969

If it was up to me, I’d just say “screw it” and tell the feds to keep their money.


2 posted on 01/26/2013 8:02:10 AM PST by Nowhere Man (Whitey, I miss you so much. Take care, pretty girl. (4-15-2001 - 10-12-2012))
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To: servo1969
This is ridiculous.

I heard one of the parents of these special children say it will make the kids feel included.

Well, there are millions of kids who don't make the team....millions....so should we have another team for them??

3 posted on 01/26/2013 8:02:53 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: servo1969

Paging “ Harrison Bergeron” its your turn to play


4 posted on 01/26/2013 8:03:52 AM PST by South Dakota (shut up and build a bakken pipe line)
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To: servo1969

What men’s sports will get cut now?


5 posted on 01/26/2013 8:04:10 AM PST by Clint N. Suhks (The amount of ammo you need is determined after the gunfight.)
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To: servo1969

Just wait until they are deemed ready for combat - you know “fairness”.


6 posted on 01/26/2013 8:05:41 AM PST by Last Dakotan
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To: servo1969

Wheelchair tennis???

Do you make the ball bounce slower or something?

This is stupid.

What a great way to get the feds out of your schools, tho!


7 posted on 01/26/2013 8:08:19 AM PST by Adder (No, Mr. Franklin, we could NOT keep it.)
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To: servo1969

I believe this just the beginning.

The next four years are gonna be a Progressive cluster to get as much wackiness as possible carved in stone.

Like monkeys f-ing a football.

Here’s the tune I keep hearing in my head every time something asinine like this comes up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B0CyOAO8y0


8 posted on 01/26/2013 8:10:42 AM PST by servo1969
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To: servo1969

What else? Wheelchair Tennis? Wheelchair Cheerleaders? Deaf Cheerleaders? Wheelchair Baseball?


9 posted on 01/26/2013 8:12:07 AM PST by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: servo1969

I can hardly wait for the results of the first all-blind archery tournament.


10 posted on 01/26/2013 8:14:13 AM PST by Wordkraft (Remember who the Collaborators are.)
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To: Nowhere Man

That’s the appropriate thing to do, but that won’t happen.


11 posted on 01/26/2013 8:15:04 AM PST by izzatzo
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To: servo1969

For that ‘touch of masochism’ in all of us, it is worth staying alive to see what this bunch of ‘feel good idiots’ can come up with next.

There were only 8 million stories in the ‘Naked City’, but when he gets around to doing something for ‘me and thee’ it will be up to 300 million stories in the naked country.

I would say that this is absolutely the dumbest single idea they have come up with BUT would just have to repeat myself in the next day or so.

Back in the 70’s some hippies/yuppies proposed diapers on ALL animals - domestic, wild etc etc. Look for that to come back’


12 posted on 01/26/2013 8:15:20 AM PST by xrmusn (6/98 "It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it")
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To: Nowhere Man
If it was up to me, I’d just say “screw it” and tell the feds to keep their money.

This is not their money, it's our money. They tax you then they make you do whatever they want in order to get your own money back.

13 posted on 01/26/2013 8:15:45 AM PST by oldbrowser (They are marxists, don't call them democrats)
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To: servo1969

There was a deaf competitor on my daughter’s swim team years ago, and what the school did was have a hearing teammate stand behind him and when the start buzzer went off, she tapped his ankle. It worked very well, brought a tear to my eye (as I’m all-but-deaf too), and didn’t cost the school a penny to implement.


14 posted on 01/26/2013 8:17:13 AM PST by mlizzy (If people spent an hour a week in Eucharistic adoration, abortion would be ended. --Mother Teresa)
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To: Sacajaweau

It’s a tough issue. I have one daughter that has a brain injury. She is very smart, but she is uncoordinated and has speech problems.

She is not good enough to be in any after school activity.

It’s very frustrating!!!

Then my other daughter was just diagnosed with a focal dystonia, a movement disorder, and she is now considered disabled. It causes cramping and uncontrollable movements in her left hand (she’s a lefty) when she writes, plays the flute (she was a very, very, very good musician),, types, or other repetitive hand movements.

It just started a year ago. She was supposed to march in the Rose Bowl Parade with her band, but she couldn’t play her flute. It seems like they could have figured out something for her to do.

My daughter with dystonia is switching to theater and singing, so she at least is finding something to do.

My other daughter has no after school activities, and she is lonely.

I don’t know what the solution is, but it’s hard having a kid that doesn’t have many friends.


15 posted on 01/26/2013 8:23:06 AM PST by luckystarmom
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To: servo1969
how included will they feel when nobody but their parents show up to watch these exhibitions???
16 posted on 01/26/2013 8:23:19 AM PST by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: servo1969

What do you call a kid with no arms and legs who plays baseball?.......Third base...
It’s a joke people! Like our fearless leader!


17 posted on 01/26/2013 8:27:11 AM PST by baddog 219
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To: luckystarmom
I am with you ( literally having a child I had to home school with a very difficult medical condition) however we cannot remake our society, in fact we are way past bankrupt and both of your daughters are on the hook.

At my sons’ private boy school there was a wonderful young man who suffered a serious disability. Could not play sports: so he was team manager, and very much a part.

Look for alternatives. It is part of the pain, but the reward is so much deeper than what the typical kids’ accomplishments bring.

18 posted on 01/26/2013 8:37:43 AM PST by Bainbridge
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To: Wordkraft

“I can hardly wait for the results of the first all-blind archery tournament.”

We had a blind guy on the darts team when I was overseas. One of the other guys would tap on the target where he needed to aim (and then get the heck out of the way!).


19 posted on 01/26/2013 8:38:54 AM PST by PLMerite (Shut the Beyotch Down! Burn, baby, burn!)
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To: servo1969

Maybe he can set it up so that I can play in the NBA. I’m 55 years old and 5’10”. Is that a problem?


20 posted on 01/26/2013 8:39:10 AM PST by crosshairs (All we are saying, is give a high cap piece a chance.)
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