DC area Muslim HS runner disqualified

Japan bombs Pearl Harbor!

When the Rules Run Up Against Faith

Prep Athlete Wearing Muslim Clothing Disqualified From Track Meet

Juashaunna Kelly, a Theodore Roosevelt High School senior who has the fastest mile and two-mile times of any girls' runner in the District this winter, was disqualified from Saturday's Montgomery Invitational indoor track and field meet after officials said her Muslim clothing violated national competition rules.

Kelly was wearing the same uniform she has worn for the past three seasons while running for Theodore Roosevelt's cross-country and track teams: a custom-made, one-piece blue and orange unitard that covers her head, arms, torso and legs. On top of the unitard, Kelly wore the same orange and blue T-shirt and shorts as her teammates.

The outfit allows her to compete while complying with her Muslim faith, which forbids displaying any skin other than her face and hands.

As one of the other heats was held, two meet officials signaled to Kelly and asked her about her uniform. Meet director Tom Rogers said Kelly's uniform violated rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which sanctioned the event, by not being "a single-solid color and unadorned, except for a single school name or insignia no more than 2 1/4 inches."

Rogers then told Kelly she was disqualified. Kelly dropped to her knees and began sobbing. Kelly's mother, Sarah, walked down from the bleachers at Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex in Landover and argued with Rogers, but left without coming to an agreement to console her daughter.

"I saw that this isn't getting anywhere, and I wanted to go see her," Sarah Kelly said.

Rogers said he made three public address announcements prior to Kelly's disqualification requesting that Roosevelt Coach Tony Bowden meet with him. Bowden said he didn't hear any announcements.

Kelly has worn the same uniform for three years without any questions, including the 800- and 1,600-meter races at last year's Montgomery Invitational, at which Rogers also was the director.

"She ran in the same exact meet last year," Sarah Kelly said. "There was nothing said. No one has ever said anything to her."

Rogers said: "We run over 2,000 athletes in this meet. Most likely an official missed her uniform [last year] and a call wasn't made."

Juashaunna Kelly, who last week was named the 2007 Gatorade girls' cross-country runner of the year in the District, had her uniform custom-made by a tailor in Apple Valley, Calif., two years ago.

"It's not special," Kelly said. "It doesn't make me perform better."

She said she has been questioned about her uniform before every meet in which she has competed, including Saturday's.

"It was the same as the other meets: They pulled me aside and asked me why am I wearing this," she said. "I said, 'It's because I'm a Muslim.' "

Rogers said he knew Kelly was wearing the uniform for religious reasons and that he offered her several options to conform to the rules of the meet while still respecting her faith, including placing a plain T-shirt over her unitard and then wearing her team uniform over it.

"Every sport has uniform rules. It has nothing to do with religious discrimination," Rogers said. "They were provided with several options that would have allowed her to run without taking off her head covering."

Sarah Kelly said that was not the case. She said meet referees made several demands of her daughter before Rogers made his decision.

"First, they said she had to take her hood off," Sarah Kelly said. "Then, they said she can't have anything with logos displayed. Then, they said she had to turn it inside out. When I told them that there weren't any logos on it, they said she had to put a plain white T-shirt on over it."

Bowden said: "It never started off about color [of her uniform]. It started with her head wear.

"It wasn't a problem last year, and it's a problem this year? Make me understand why."

Perhaps the most prominent case in the United States of an athlete competing in Muslim attire occurred in 2004 at the University of South Florida. Women's basketball player Andrea Armstrong said she was asked by her coach to not wear her Muslim head scarf, long sleeves and long pants on the court. The school said it would appeal to the NCAA for a uniform waiver on her behalf, but Armstrong quit the team before a ruling was made.

Kelly, whose 1,600 time of 5 minutes 17.49 seconds and 3,200 time of 12:00.81 are the fastest of any District girl, was hoping to run a time fast enough at the Montgomery Invitational to qualify for the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York on Feb. 8-9. Bowden said Roosevelt has no other meets scheduled that would allow her to qualify for the event, which attracts dozens of college recruiters.

"What she needs to do is get some religious documentation saying it's part of her heritage and bring it with her to every meet," said Jim Vollmer, the commissioner of track for Montgomery County public schools.

If anything you would have to imagine that her additional clothes are going to slow her down.

I love peeps wrote:

Good, she's too slow to be considered a star.

whats her best time? I bet a 10 year old Florida girl can run it!

ougga-bougga-boo

illiterate or lazy? the times are in the article. she's a good runner. not a superstar, but pretty good.

I’m sure Nawal El Moutawakil was an equally devout Muslim when she won the Olympic gold at 400mts Hurdles.

She though, didn’t feel the need or obligation to cover herself up and dressed conventionally - albeit not as skimpily dressed as some females in the sport these days.

I suggest this girl is using our sport to make some sort of political statement.

I’m sure Nawal El Moutawakil was an equally devout Muslim when she won the Olympic gold at 400mts Hurdles.

She though, didn’t feel the need or obligation to cover herself up and dressed conventionally - albeit not as skimpily dressed as some females in the sport these days.

I suggest this girl is using our sport to make some sort of political statement.

No to 2012 wrote:

I’m sure Nawal El Moutawakil was an equally devout Muslim when she won the Olympic gold at 400mts Hurdles.

She though, didn’t feel the need or obligation to cover herself up and dressed conventionally - albeit not as skimpily dressed as some females in the sport these days.

I suggest this girl is using our sport to make some sort of political statement.

your rettarded s,he is running covered up because its part of her religion u. get your facts straight buddy

You might try seeing if there are other threads on this topic before wasting bandwidth with a new and redundant one:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2313080

Yes, I’ve observed some other ‘parts of their religion’ in my country.

They brutally murder their daughters if they refuse to accept the marriage their parents have arranged for them.

Mate, can you send me a copy of the Dail Mail on Sunday when you're done reading it. I can't get it now that I live abroad and I miss all the xenophobic bull$hit.

I'm guessing this is a highly publicized case of a silly high school uniform rule violation. I feel for the girl disqualified, but I hardly think it is a religious issue.

It's just picky officials enforcing high school rules that don't allow watches, necklaces, crosses, boxer shorts, or different color spandex underneath uniform shorts. Every coach should have run into this situation sometime in their career.

unitard. haha. there's a funny word

Ah, poor girl. Why doesn't she take that crap to a Muslim country if she has it so bad here? She needs to get over it if she plans to keep living and enjoying the freedoms this Judeo-Christian nation allows her to have.

Mookie Blaylock wrote:

Ah, poor girl. Why doesn't she take that crap to a Muslim country if she has it so bad here? She needs to get over it if she plans to keep living and enjoying the freedoms this Judeo-Christian nation allows her to have.

Do you REALLY not see the irony in that $hit you just wrote?

Mookie Blaylock wrote:

Ah, poor girl. Why doesn't she take that crap to a Muslim country if she has it so bad here? She needs to get over it if she plans to keep living and enjoying the freedoms this Judeo-Christian nation allows her to have.

what freedom is she complaining about? the freedom to NOT be allowed to wear garb that reflects her religious beliefs?

Mookie, you're an idiot. Did she complain about the US? No, she complained about a meet. What if this was a good Christian girl who was told she couldn't wear a cross when she ran? Would you feel similarly?

Anti-Semitism is rampant in the U.S. again due to 9-11. Arab Semites are targeted by the U.S. government for renditions and concentration camps. Incidents against Jewish Semites are at an all time high since the end of Jim Crow. People need to calm down and chill.

This reminds me of at least one story I heard of a team losing a state championship because memorial ribbons they were wearing were deemed a uniform violation. I honestly don't understand officials who do not seem to realize that their job, in dealing with teenagers, is to reward them for honest effort and achievement and to usher them through to the rest of their lives believing such a system of efforts/achievements/rewards is just. To be so picayune about "uniform" rules is so smallminded as to be peabrained. Such people should not even be allowed to work around high school kids.

Dusty Bones wrote:

This reminds me of at least one story I heard of a team losing a state championship because memorial ribbons they were wearing were deemed a uniform violation. I honestly don't understand officials who do not seem to realize that their job, in dealing with teenagers, is to reward them for honest effort and achievement and to usher them through to the rest of their lives believing such a system of efforts/achievements/rewards is just. To be so picayune about "uniform" rules is so smallminded as to be peabrained. Such people should not even be allowed to work around high school kids.

Word

curioser wrote:

Mate, can you send me a copy of the Dail Mail on Sunday when you're done reading it. I can't get it now that I live abroad and I miss all the xenophobic bull$hit.

I don’t read the Mail.

I assume the Telegraph is sufficiently accurate reporting facts rather than xenophobic.

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