Lets face it. Some kids are athletic enough to earn a varsity letter and some aren't. The big majority aren't. They have JV teams for those kids and they have as much fun and play as hard as the varsity players. They just aren't able to letter.

So, at a high school in KS they have a special needs basketball team for special needs kids. There's a Downs Syndrome kid on the team. His parents bought him a school letter that he didn't earn, and a jacket to put it on. Now the school won't let him wear it because he didn't earn the letter.

I know that these kids need all the encouragement they can get but he's still just another one of the vast majority who can't earn a letter. He's not special in that aspect. I don't think he should be able to wear it any more than the JV kids. If they want to create a special letter for them, that's fine, but a varsity letter has to be earned.

What's your opinion?

ARTICLE

If I were a varsity letterman, I wouldn't give a rats a$$ if everybody else in the whole school bought a letter jacket and a letter to put on it. If I earn something, the earning of it is 'mine' and doesn't have anything to do with what someone else does...in other words...it can't be 'negated', or 'diminished', by what someone else does. In this case in particular, it certainly wouldn't bother me to help bolster the ego of a young person who was already fighting a hard battle.

Priorities. Does it really matter?

And, unless it's your kid or your school, why get involved at all? It's a meaningless "letter" on a jacket. It's not a Purple Heart, or CIB, or MOH.

To think that some have nothing more to do than to bitch about a kid with Down's Syndrome wearing a silly letter on his jacket to high school.

No $ch!t...!

laffin' too...!

I never have been a fan of main streaming Downs Syndrome kids. I know that is not a popular view point but............

If the kid did not earn the letter, he should not get one. His parents are to blame.

Antlers, you said it better than I probably can.

GMAFB! Let the young man (who is living with challenges we can't imagine and thank God every day our own children don't face) wear his jacket with the letter and support the school/sport he loves.

I'd be willing to wager that the offspring of the parent that complained about this is a real class act as well. It's a letter jacket. We all have them hanging in our basements or back closets. Big deal at the time, after some life experience, not so much. And by damn, let's make sure none of the varsity lettermen's girlfriends are sporting those jackets around the hallways, they sure as hell didn't earn them in sporting competition.....

Sorry gentlemen, rant over.

If I had been an athlete in that school, abd earned my letter, and wete yo see this going on. I'd give the kid my jacket.

It's an article of clothing, a token, the same as the awards and trophies I won. They held no sentiment to me. I read the article and it brought a sense of belonging to this kid. Let him wear the jacket. In my experience letters and trophies only really matter to has been parents

I wonder if they allow a guy's girlfriend to wear his letterman jacket.

In my mind, this truly shows who has the handicap, and its sure not the kid with Downs syndrome.

That is well said...!

She has to earn it....

I knew that was coming.

So did she...

Quite the contrary I imagine, though perhaps not the ‘sporting’ that typically earns the letter in the first place.

yep. I never even bought my letterman's jacket when I was in HS.

Ok, now that I've got things going on who has to earn what...

You work your tail off getting that big public land wall hanger elk & pack it out 3 miles on your back. Your neighbor goes on a canned hunt and gets one just as good but he shoots it from the back of a pickup in a fenced pasture. He buys his.
Is there a difference?

Of course there's a difference, but I'm in the business of doing what makes myself happy and not giving a flip what makes someone else happy.

In my other hobby (ham radio), we have been going through similar "who's earned it/who hasn't" controversy for years. It started when the radio theory and 20wpm Morse code tests became multiple choice and "if you didnt test in front of the FCC examiner, you had it too easy and didnt earn your license. This is when test sessions were starting to be conducted by volenteer examiners. Then it got worse when they elimated the morse code tests altogether and made the theory exam as easy as a drivers license test (meaning any knucklehead who could read and temporarily memorize a question pool could pass the highest licence class test in short order). Many opinions of the old school ops were that the license and special operating privileges of the Extra Class license (a level that only 5% of operators would ever reach) was now somehow lessened and meaningless because in their mind, the license was not earned. They think it turned the ham bands into the same chaotic mess that the CB bands were in the 70's and still are today. As an operator who had to pass the code test, I have to agree that in some cases, this was correct. However, there was sort of a compromise with changing license class priveliges with the addition of the "no code tech" and in the years following, it changed nothing. some folks continued to beat the same ol drum and try to hold on to the old ways and most just accepted change and moved on. maybe a special letter for the kids could be a "lower case" letter instead of a capital letter if they did not earn the varsity letter?? I really dont know...and I personally dont think at the end of the day it really matters...but I do think that making all things easy where everyone gets the same reward just for participating gives folks fewer reasons to strive towards a goal and do their best to excell. I am not so sure this would apply to a purchased jacket and the kid wearing it. If he didnt play the game, he didnt earn it...but that doesnt mean he cant wear one that his folks bought for him. After all, he is not claiming he earned it. Just like many have said...no one seems to care about girlfriends wearing the jacket if their athlete boyfriend gave it to her. I can say there is one thing the changes of modern times that seems be getting more mainstream and accepted, personally bothers me more to see than a mental challenged child trying to feel better about himself and "look like the cool kids". This to see one boy wearing his same gender significant other's letter jacket while they pick out their tuxedos for prom. I'm sure I'll get "flamed" for that one (pun intended LOL). As for the original question, If wearing a school letter he didnt earn was worst problem this locality has to worry about, they are doing pretty good!

I bet you missed out on the varsity jacket for paragraph breaks.....

No paragraphs in ham radio...

DF

Yes. One of the above is a hunter, the other is an animal shooter.

I would have no problem with adopting a downs syndrome kid on our varsity team and giving him a letter jacket. Everyone knows what is going on and the love shown to the kid and comradeship would be a blessing to the kid and the team. I remember how cruel kids treated downs syndrome children back in the 1950s in my elementary school. So embarrassing I didn't do anything to stop it.

I'm sure all those girls that earned it would agree

What if the kid in the story was wearing a crucifix and someone bitched about it and the kid was told not to wear a crucifix?

In general, I agree with antlers and others who say "why not?" - if it's good for the kid, let him wear the letter since that's where the kid's parents have put this situation. Any happiness or motivation of any kind he gets from wearing it will not diminish the significance of the earned letters being worn by the athletes. People understand this stuff.

This reminds me that somewhere around here there is a box with HS and college varsity sport letters that got removed from old jackets. Aside from a few nice memory recalls, those things are about worthless except when my grandkids root through that stuff for fun and ask about those days. Where do we place and live our emphases?

There is one comment in that article that DOES bother me a bit - has nothing to do with this kid's situation - but does have to do with recognition of excellence in our midst. More and more over the years I have seen trophies/lcertificates/letters/ribbons/etc. handed out will-nilly for "participation". Where did we lose it? Isn't patricipation a basic reason why folks engage team sports, etc.? So, why did we start handing out rewards for showing up?

Not simply in sports - but overall - how can it make sense to compromise recognition of excellent performance and great effort on the part of some people because sensistive feelings might arise on the part of those who were not so good and didn't get praised? This is life. None of us are good at everything, some are good at some things - and we all participated.

Hey - give me a "Z".

Not even close.

You're pissed because a kid with Down's Syndrome is wearing a meaningless letter on a silly HS jacket. He's earned more in life than most can imagine and even being able to play sports at all for him is an achievement.

Somehow, you equate that to "poaching".

None of this is in your town, or with your kid(s), or has anything to do directly with your life, yet you're torqued up about it enough to call it "wrong".

Think about that.

I bet you missed out on the varsity jacket for paragraph breaks..... [/quote]

and for being so long winded that the season was over before I made it to tryouts :-) BUT...IF it was like todays schools that my grandkids go to, everyone makes the team just because they want to regardless if they have athletic talent or not. I wouldnt have had to tryout..I would have got my letter anyway so "my feeling" (only have one) didnt get hurt :-) In this area, even last place gets a trophy...

That's not correct anymore, at least not around here. While the game time needed to letter in sports probably hasn't changed much, the opportunity to letter in something has drastically increased. A student can letter in choir, theater (including sets, etc.), academics, and even some types of volunteer hours, and the list goes on.

Giving the Downs kid a made-up letter is diminishing the kid and indicates lazy parents. I'd bet there is a niche the kid could succeed at on his own terms and actually earn the award.

We had a black kid ( in his mid-thirties, but mentally very much a child) with Downs Syndrome in the small town I live in back in the late '90s. His name was Butch and he loved baseball with all his heart. He was less than 5' tall and had other related physical problems that slowed him down, but definitely didn't stop him. He worked 6 days a week at the local Piggly Wiggly sweeping, helping people with their groceries, etc. His most prized possession in life was an Atlanta Braves uniform that one of my uncles put together for him around a replica jersey. He had the pants, sleeved undershirt, rubber cleats, the works. When a 50 yr old POS crack addict lured him behind the old high school building and LITERALLY kicked him to death for the $26 that he knew Butch had, he was buried in that "Braves" uniform. Apparently, there are some here who would disagree strongly with that. After all Butch wasn't a real Atlanta Brave.
John

At most, the "special" teams kids could have a different letter. But Varisity is what it is.

Personally I'm tired of making everybody special. But in any case, I wish the kid well.

These are kids for crying out loud.Its a jacket,who cares.Yes I got the letter but never put in on a jacket.

I must assume that all the misconceptions about downs kids are due to a lack of contact with them. Kids who have downs are very simplistic in many ways, are very loving and tender hearted. I have a bud with a boy who has downs he's 26 now and will graduate school this year. he loves me simply because I pay attention to him.

At work we have some downs kids come and shred documents for us they love the job, just one sheet at a time and they concentrate so hard to do a good job. If I'm around they all want to give me a high five with this great big smile on their face and the depth of love that is in their eyes is almost frightening. I don't know who's day is better for it theirs or mine.

Downs kids are very limited in what they can do, they have to put in so much more effort than you or I just to get through the day. I got a feeling that kid earned that varsity letter way before he ever met the other kids.

I agree with jdm. I lettered at two different high schools. The first one meant something for about 20 seconds, the second one,a good bit less than that.
John

If I was a letterman at that school I'd be embarrassed to ever wear a lettermans jacket again.

12344mag, Excellent post. And true.
John

Absolutely, well said.

It's a slippery slope, isn't it?

You want to have compassion for the Down's Syndrome kid, but counterfeiting is not the way to do it. He needs to find what he can excel at and excel at it, not pretend.

I had a DS neighbor who became an MD! He wasn't pretending, his parent's didn't counterfeit a med school diploma, he did it!

Is this any different from the guys who falsely claim to be veterans, Special Forces, etc.? That's the future behavior these parents are training their kid for!

We need to stop shilling for special needs kids and actually work with them on their level and celebrate their own accomplishments. Otherwise we just dilute the meaning of other kids' experiences.

My grandson's ROTC drill team has one or more special needs kids on the team. It is all well and good to let this kid participate, but what does it do for the others? My GS's team was mostly sharp as a tack, but what good is it if one member is dragging his rifle along the floor by the sling? I guess this is an opposite case? Instead of pretending the special needs kid could letter we pretend that the other team members can't cut it.

It's a difficult topic.

Exactly.

I lettered 3x over in HS. Until this thread, I didn't even recall that. It means that little to me today. To a kid with Down's? Hell, it may be a crowning achievement, and that's not meant as any kind of insult.

Let the kid rejoice; let him have something to have pride in.

JFC, if your life is so tied up in HS letters and who "earns them" or not, especially in a school not your own, or of your own kids, and likely generations removed from when you were in, then you've likely got more problems that the Down's Syndrome kid or his parents simply trying to make the best of it.

The kid is special, and I would think the rest of the "Letterman" would be proud to have him wanting to be "like them".

The heartless attitudes that simple selfishness has produced in America today troubles me, how anyone that has ever spent any time with child born autistic, or with downs, and would deny them a simple pleasure, is a man that is sadly missing what life is really about.

Did they catch the piece of garbage?

I should have added that there are many different levels of downs, anywhere from highly functional to barely able to use a fork. My buds kid got sick and reversed a bit, the teacher used to be able to give him a note and he would deliver it to the principal as directed now he wanders the halls because he forgot what he was supposed to do. Makes me sick to know this as I've watched his struggles growing up.

We don't know the level this particular boy is at but being in a regular school would suggest to me he is highly functional and the parents actions would suggest to me he had limitations even though he was highly functional.

Parents of downs kids are different than you and I, they are very in tune to the needs and limits the affliction puts on their child, my bud has corrected me more than once.

Wilkeshunter, Yes they did. The police knew pretty much as soon as the body was found who did it. The guy had been seen by several people badgering Butch at a convenience store about an hour before his parents called the Piggly Wiggly saying he hadn't arrived home. It took them about 3 days to locate him. He pled guilty to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to life without parole. The only upside to the whole thing is that when he had been in the prison in Columbia for about 3 months, another prisoner showed up that had been a friend of Butch's family. That coupled with the fact the POS wasn't adapting well earned him an ass-whipping that cost him an eye and partial use of his lower extremities.
John

I think only a real cuunt would complain about the kid.

I agree. If you stop and think about it this kid with Down's, a subject that is near to me, probably worked harder than many of the kids who played and earned their letter.

I only lettered one year then said the hell with it and went hunting and fishing my myself.

My high school team had a kid like that as a ball-boy.

He has a letter for his hard work for the team.

Everybody loved that kid.

BMT

No problem with BMT's example, as long as it was agreed upon.

But in this case:

Let's also give the kid a black belt in Kung-Do-Jitsu, cause what the h3ll.

And photoshop him into some pictures climbin Everest with no oxygen.

He needs a world record, or at least a state record, in somethin', while we're at it.

Either the kid has enough sentient function to realize the jacket is BS, or he doesn't.

If he does, this isn't "helping" him.

If he doesn't, it doesn't matter anyway.

This story reminds me of the Seahawks fans who wear NFL jerseys...............JUST the Seahawks fans.

+10 gitem_12

Yes, because getting a letter is such an achievement.

I wasnt either until I have been around 3, spanning a pretty long while, who really did quite well in a mainstream school. More importantly, the OTHER kids learned a lot. Often the LRE law goes too far, but i guess the spectrum of Downs (and other) can factor in. It isnt all the same.

+1 good post

+1
I work in a very high achieving district. All league individual and team honors are expected, and All county & all state are frequent. even at this highly competitive school, if you dont letter in your 4 years, you didnt try. Band, Debate, theater.. You got it. LOTS of opportunity.

I did it the hard way, in the Army, and it was probably the hardest thing that I ever tried to learn. After a short while of not using it, I promptly forgot it. I did not want it to, but it left me. miles

JHC!!! What is lettering anyway, but participating in high school sports. This douche of a principal has probably never had ANY experiences out of the academic setting, school - college -back to school.

"They're not all good enough to win a letter"??? Really? My high school team went 1-7 my senior year. We all got letters. Nobody, including me, cared then or now.

Talk about peaking in high school fer chrissake.

Oh for cryin' outloud, the kid's done the best he can. All he wants is to be a part of something, and the principal won't allow that? WTF!? The kid can't possibly compete for that letter evenly with non-challenged kids. Cut the kid some slack, let him have some happiness, and find something, anything, more important than this to biatch about. To those here who agree with the principal, man you've got some serious issues.

I see nothing wrong with him wearing it and if something as small as that might bring him and his family some extra happiness through all of their tough times, I'm all for it.

I'm not a fan of everyone gets a trophy..But on this deal I could really care less..Pretty sure my attitude would be the same back in HS.I lettered in fooball and wrestling as a sophomore.in the grans scheme of things,its not a real memorable accomplishment..

Didnt wear my jacket much at all..As alluded to by Steelhead, LJ's were used to identify who was really "scoring"..

Now if a chick shows up wearing the DS kids jacket, then people will really have something to talk about

I'm an educator. Like any profession, you have a small percentage of idiots in education.

The principal in this story is one of those.