Lawsuit Filed Seeking Start Of Youth Winter Sports

LANSING---A lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the Michigan Court of Claims against the state health department for its continued shut down of indoor high school contact sports.

The suit was brought by the group "Let Them Play Michigan", a coalition of parents, students, coaches, and school administrators. The organization's Facebook group has swelled to more than 38,000 members, and held a rally last Saturday that attracted thousands.

The lawsuit seeks the immediate start of high school sports, claiming that continued shutdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus are not justified. The suit notes that Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and other states, have been playing full seasons of hockey, basketball, wrestling, and competitive cheerleading, without major outbreaks.

Let Michigan Play was joined in the lawsuit by the Michigan Amateur Youth Hockey League, as well as by a number of high-profile high school athletes and their parents.

They are asking for a judge to issue an injunction against MDHHS, a move that could allow the Michigan High School Athletic Association to move forward with its schedules. The MHSAA was not a part of the lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

The plaintiff's attorney, Peter Ruddell of the Honigman Business Law Firm in Lansing, says they filed suit because time is running out for kids to have their seasons. The current state order banning competition was first issued in November as a "three week pause", but has been extended several times and now goes through Feb. 21.

"The sense of urgency was not at the same place as our student-athletes was, coming from the state health department," Ruddell said. "The opportunity for student-athletes to compete is narrow, and we felt it was time to make sure that everyone had the same sense of urgency that our student athletes, parents, coaches, and administrators have." 

The MDHHS, in a statement Tuesday, replied that "the administration does not generally comment on litigation, and does not make decisions based on lawsuits."

The statement also said that the Whitmer Administration is "reviewing current (COVID) mitigation meaures, including those around contact sports." They also noted that Whitmer herself said last Friday in an interview that sports could resume "within weeks, or days".

The MDHHS said they are working on a path forward that would possibly involve mass testing of students and coaches. There's concern, raised by MHSAA Director Mark Uyl, that schools do not have the money to test up to 60,000 athletes repeatedly.

One argument is that the students' rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Michigan and United States Constitutions are being violated. That's because students in other states are able to play and work toward college scholarship opportunities, while Michigan students cannot. And the suit points out that thousands of Michigan students are traveling to games in other states to get competition, while students without financial means can't do the same.

The lawsuit specifically states:
 

“MDHHS’s January 22 Order arbitrarily and irrationally singles out and deprives Plaintiffs of their rights and freedoms to associate with other students and engage in athletic competitions, while allowing other high school athletes to compete in ‘non-contact’ sports; older athletes to compete in ‘contact sports’; and businesses to operate that create larger public-health risks than the prohibited high school sports. Specifically, MDHSS offers no data – nor can it – to support the lines it’s drawn prohibiting high school athletics but permitting collegiate and professional athletics.”

The suit also alleges that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is ignorning the mental health of the student athletes, and that continued denial of their ability to compete is leading to depression and suicide. 

Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the parents of 18-year-old Brennan Dethloff, a hockey player at Muskegon Mona Shores High School who died in a care crash two weeks ago. His parents say their son's death was a sucide, and it was because of the continued shutdown of hockey.

The suit also alleges that students' right to free assembly is being violated. 

"That's a First Amendment right that has been guaranteed to all of us since the United States Constitution was enacted," Ruddell said. "These student athletes do not have the opportunity to peacably assemble and to engage in their perfomed activity."

The suit says there's a violation of the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act, by allowing college and pro sports to continue but not high school sports. Teenage athletes, it's argued, are being discriminated against due to their age.

"The January 22nd order took everyone by surprise," Ruddell said. "Everybody was moving toward a Feb. 1 start date for indoor athletics. That January 22 order changed everything, so, yes, there is a concern, that the order could be extended (again)."

Ruddell says that there is no reason for contact high school sports to be banned, saying that there's no evidence that kids spread the virus.

He also noted that "we have restaurants and bars open. You can go to casinos. Three or four kids can go to the mall and hang out for hours. They can shop and eat and do whatever they want inside the ball, but they can't play sports in their high schools. We have opened all sorts of indoor activities. Why not high school sports?