No Intent to Discriminate in Maryland Track Event

By Robert F. Kanaby, NFHS Executive Director, and Ron Laird, NFHS President

There's a game we played in younger days. One person would tell a story to someone else, who would attempt to tell the same story to yet another person. This same process would continue until the last person would tell the story and it was only a small resemblance of the original story.
 
We were reminded of this example earlier this year as we received numerous phone calls and e-mails regarding the track and field incident January 12 in Maryland. This was truly a case of misinformation, jumping to conclusions and wrong assumptions. Five days after the event in Maryland, we disseminated a press release in an effort to present the facts and put an end to some erroneous information.

On January 12, 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 National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) track and field playing rules.

On January 17, we issued the following statement regarding this incident:

"The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), the national leadership organization for high school athletic 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.

"Neither 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."

The meet officials in Maryland were simply doing their job – enforcing the NFHS track uniform rule. The rule permits a full body undergarment, as well as a head covering involved in a one-piece uniform. Unfortunately, because she wasn't allowed to wear the multi-colored undergarment, the story originally became twisted that she wasn't allowed to fulfill her religious obligations which requires the entire body to be covered.

Obviously, all NFHS playing rules are written in an effort to not exclude anyone and, in fact, certain allowances are made to enable individuals to exercise their religious faith. As an example, although jewelry is not allowed in most sports for which the NFHS writes rules, a religious medal is not considered jewelry and is allowed to be worn under the uniform, if taped.
 
While playing rules are necessary to conduct interscholastic competition, they are always enforced fairly across the board and with no intent to discriminate against anyone.