Judge Rules Three Cameron Students Are Eligible To Play Sports

CAMERON — Three Cameron High School students — originally barred by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission from participating in sports this year due to transfer rules — can now play following a preliminary injunction granted Wednesday by Second Judicial Circuit Court Judge Charles Richard Wilson.

Wilson agreed with the students and their parents that the WVSSAC was wrong in saying the students had transferred twice, a violation of WVSSAC guidelines, when they had transferred just once during their high school years.

The three students had attended Cameron Middle School in eighth grade, but had decided that year to enroll at Wheeling Central Catholic High School as freshmen. After their freshman year, they decided to return to Cameron.

Yet, when they returned to Cameron, the WVSSAC deemed that a second transfer and ruled them ineligible.

The West Virginia Legislature had passed a statute on March 11, 2023, that allowed students a single transfer during their ninth through 12th grade years where they could maintain their immediate eligibility. The WVSSAC claimed that the students’ move from Cameron Middle to Wheeling Central constituted that transfer.

WVSSAC Executive Director David Price testified that the commission believes that, when a student completes eighth grade, that student is automatically enrolled into their feeder high school. In the WVSSAC’s opinion, Price said, the three were automatically enrolled at Cameron High School on July 1, 2023, and when the three enrolled at Wheeling Central out of Cameron Middle, they actually transferred from Cameron High to Wheeling Central as their one-time transfer.

The WVSSAC presented as evidence backing its claim a printout from the West Virginia Department of Education’s computer system showing what schools were attended by the student for each school year.

The students and their attorneys countered that they had told Cameron High School officials they were enrolling at Wheeling Central during their eighth grade years, did not schedule freshman classes at Cameron High and did not enroll at Cameron High. The school’s principal, Wyatt O’Neil, testified that all that was true.

The plaintiffs also argued that the WVSSAC provided no instruction or interpretation of the new law until mid-to-late August 2023. By that time, the three students already were enrolled at Wheeling Central.

In ruling for the plaintiffs, Wilson said the WVSSAC’s contention of automatic enrollment in a high school following eighth grade was incorrect.

“Eighth grade, ninth grade, indeed all grades have a beginning and an ending,” he wrote in his ruling. “That is axiomatic. What is not axiomatic is that one grade begins immediately upon the completion of the grade preceding it. There is a time period between them.

“Put this way, after eighth grade, a student intending to continue school is ‘going into the ninth grade,’ but isn’t there yet until actually passing across the threshold of the ninth-grade school,” he continued. The WVSSAC’s contention is that once the final bell on the last day of eighth grade rings, a student is miraculously deemed to be a ninth grader, before even the first bell of the first day of ninth grade rings. A computer-generated printout created primarily as an administrative convenience tool for use mostly by grownups is not a sufficient indicator of whether a child is actually enrolled or not at any particular school, let alone even attending any particular school.”

The next step, according to attorney David Delk, who represented the students along with Jeffrey Holmstrand, would be for Wilson to schedule a court date for a permanent injunction. Delk said Thursday afternoon he has yet to receive notice on a scheduled date.

He was pleased with Wilson’s decision.

“I think Judge Wilson took an objective look at the facts and the statute that was passed by the Legislature and the clear wording of the statute and the clear wording of the SSAC rule and determined that the only way to read it is: where is the kid actually in school in ninth grade?” he said. “From that point forward, under the rule, the student gets one transfer and maintains their eligibility.”

WVSSAC could not be reached for comment as of Thursday evening.