The Virginia High School League, which oversees most of the state’s high school sports, says it has no immediate plans to change policies governing transgender athletes, despite Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s new guidelines that call for competition to be among those of the same biological sex.
Youngkin’s model policies state student-athletes be grouped as such, as opposed to by gender identity, with “reasonable modifications” granted only to the extent required by law.
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The Family Foundation is suing the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) over its Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools. The model policies took effect March 6, 2021, and school boards must adopt policies consistent with the model by the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. However, the Family Foundation says there are legal problems with the policies and that the VDOE did not properly address comments made during a legally required public comment phase.
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Governor Ralph Northam released an amended Executive Order 72 that allows outdoor sports to have up to 250 spectators or 30 percent of venue capacity, whichever is less, effective Monday. The February 17 amendment modifies language that previously allowed just two guests per player, up to 30 percent of venue capacity. Indoor sports are still limited to 25 persons per field.
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The Petersburg City School Board voted 6-1 in a virtual meeting last week to move forward with high school winter sports during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The school board’s decision allows for the return of high school boys and girls basketball, indoor track and field, wrestling as well as cheerleading, and came just a couple weeks after the body had originally voted on December 16 to cancel winter sports because of the virus.
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The Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) postponed its decision Tuesday on whether to cancel the divisions’ high school winter sports season this year because of current COVID-19 data of the area.
Last week, Virginia Beach Superintendent Aaron Spence wrote in a letter to families that if either the percent positivity or the 7-day daily average of cases – two indicators used in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s K-12 School Metrics – does not improve to the “yellow range” by Tuesday, the winter sports season would be cancelled.
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The Virginia High School League (VHSL) is requiring participating schools to follow health recommendations from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) that strongly advise student-athletes to wear masks at all times while on the sidelines as well as during practices and games, the league said Thursday.
In a press release emailed to media outlets, VHSL Executive Director John “Billy” Haun announced the decision to adhere to the state health department.
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Henrico County Public Schools (HCPS) announced earlier this week that the district will not be participating in any Virginia High School League winter sports during the 2020-21 academic year because of concerns over rising coronavirus cases in the area.
Andy Jenks, HCPS chief of communications and community engagement, shared the news in an online message to families Monday and noted that all out-of-season conditioning programs are also suspended for the time being.
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In a newsletter last Monday Richmond Public Schools (RPS) Superintendent Jason Kamras said the school system will not play high school or middle school winter sports this year.
“Athletics are important for many reasons: they motivate and inspire, improve student health, and can even lead to college scholarships. I am deeply sensitive to this,” Kamras wrote in his daily RPS direct newsletter. “At the same time, given our decision to go 100% virtual for the first semester, and given rapidly rising infection rates, we will unfortunately not be fielding any teams this winter.”
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After months of uncertainty in light of the coronavirus pandemic, Virginia high school sports will finally return in December.
On Thursday, Governor Ralph Northam cleared the way for high school sports to resume and for the Virginia High School League (VHSL) to proceed with its Championship +1 schedule when he signed the fourth amendment of Executive Order 67, adjusting statewide restrictions on recreational sports.
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