SC High School League wants private, charter schools’ lawsuit dismissed
The South Carolina High School League filed a response to a lawsuit from the state’s private and charter schools.
In the three-page response, the S.C. High School League wants the charter school lawsuit dismissed. The SCHSL says “the plaintiffs lack standing to bring this action against the defendant,” or don’t have legal rights to sue or challenge actions by the league over the issues in question.
On May 18, a group of 12 private and charter schools, including Gray Collegiate Academy from the Midlands, filed against the SCHSL. Their lawsuit alleges that recently amended rules regarding athletics — specifically student transfers — “intentionally and illegally discriminate” against the league’s private and public charter high school members.
The SCHSL’s response was filed Friday by the league’s attorney, J. Michael Montgomery, and the law firm of Robinson Gray Stepp and Laffitte LLC in Common Pleas Court.
Another argument to dismiss the case by the SCHSL is because that “the venue is improper in Greenville County.” According to the response, “South Carolina Code requires a civil action be brought against a domestic corporation in the county in which (1) corporation has its principal place of business at the time the cause of action arose; or (2) the most substantial part of the alleged act or omission giving rise to the cause of action occurred.”
To that point, the S.C. High School League’s office is in Richland County, and the private and charter schools in the lawsuit are from around the state and not just from Greenville County.
The SCHSL also said the plaintiffs “failed to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.” That means the league says there isn’t any harm or damage suggested by the charter schools that warrant action by the court.
The SCHSL is asking for its motions be heard prior to any hearing on the motions requested by the charter and private schools. A motion to hear the arguments is set for June 2 at 1:30 p.m.
The S.C. High School League has 206 members — that includes traditional public schools as well as 21 public charter schools and four private schools.
The private and charter school lawsuit stems from by-laws and constitution amendments approved in March by the S.C. High School League regarding school-to-school transfers and athletic eligibility rules. Those changes “bar most students who choose to attend a public charter or private school from participating in League athletics for a period of one year from enrollment,” the Public Charter School Alliance said in a statement.
Under one of the amendments that goes into effect for the 2020-21 school year, most students who transfer from traditional school to a charter or private school would have to sit out a year before they would be eligible to play any athletic team.
In previous years, students were allowed to transfer to any high school in the state by the ninth grade and be immediately eligible athletically, even if they lived outside that school’s attendance zone. Now, those students who transfer would have to sit out of sports for a year in order to play junior varsity or varsity athletics.
According to an April opinion issued by the S.C. Attorney General’s office: “While these amendments appear to apply equally to all schools, its impact is necessarily greater on students who transfer from public schools to charter schools and private schools than those that transfer within a public school district. Therefore, a court may well find that these amendments violate the Equal Access to Interscholastic Activities Act.”
The SCHSL, through a lawyer, told Wilson’s office that “these amendments were designed to give charter schools and private schools the same treatment as similar public schools, i.e. traditional public high schools that do not have another high school in their local school district. Therefore, the SCHSL would interpret these bylaws to only allow students to transfer to another school within the school district if both schools actually fall under the governance of the same school district.”
Private or charter schools make up 12 percent of the membership of the S.C. High School League but have racked up state championships in athletics in recent years, especially in Class A and Class 2A.
Gray Collegiate has won three straight Class 2A boys basketball titles, while Bishop England has dominated several sports. Bishop England was in Class 2A and continued its success when it moved to 3A in 2015 after private schools and charter schools were required to move up in classifications when the state expanded to five classes. Christ Church was dominant in girls basketball with four straight titles before moving up to 2A.
