The state of Ohio is currently looking at the eligibility of transgender girls to participate in athleticprograms. ln team sports their participation would probably have minimal effect on outcomesconsidering how few would be involved. Individual sports like tennis and swimming might be impacted. All of this is a recent issue.
What the Ohio High School Athletic Association has failed to look at for at least 50 years is the unfairness that exists when it comes to competition between public and parochial schools. Parochial schools have the ability to load up their sports teams with some of the best athletes available and make it difficult or darned near impossible for public schools to compete.
Look at schools like Archbishop Hoban, Walsh Jesuit, St. Vincent-St. Mary, Cleveland St. lgnatius, Cleveland St. Edward, Benedictine and others and the state championships they have won. Public schools have very little chance to compete with them.
Why can’t parochial schools have other parochial schools comprise the majority of their schedules? Why can’t there be a separate division for parochial schools with two levels in order to separate the larger and smaller schools? Teams that go 9-1 or 10-0 during the regular football season would be 7-3 or 6-4 because they would be competing on a level playing field. The Republican-controlled Ohio legislature is no doubt anti-lesbian, anti-gay, and anti-transgender, but are they anti-public schools when it comes to sports in Ohio? It sure looks like it.
John S. Bennett, Macedonia
I am a long-time registered Democratic voter and a resident of the North Hill area. The flyer the Summit County Democratic Party put out about our local business, DeVitis Market, is not only terrible and very skewed but potentially damaging to our community economy.
DeVitis Market is a long-standing, reputable business that invests back into our community by being involved, paying taxes and offering jobs and opportunity to North Hill residents. It also provides healthy food choices in a clean environment for we Democrats to grab lunch and something for tonight’s dinner in a family business atmosphere.
Did it occur to individuals in the Democratic Party what the community could lose? All because one of the owners is running for office with an opposing political party. The potential consequences could be damaging to the livelihood of staff and community. This poor decision-making and marketing approval does not help the North Hill area that we Democrats (and yes, even Republicans) have worked hard to build.
Jen Zmuda, Akron
