Newspaper Sports Feature Story

Libby Nelson, The Harbinger
Shawnee Mission East HS (Prairie Village, Kan.)

The right to paint: Trying to start a tradition, seniors clash with sportsmanship rules

For the past three years, senior Adam Miller has been a devoted basketball fan. He’s followed the senior traditions, like last year’s dressing up in costumes, to show their support. But this year, he and his friends decided watching and cheering just weren’t enough. They’re seniors now, and for their last basketball season, they want to start a tradition of their own.

So Miller, along with brother Scott Miller and their friends Jordan Steadman, Tom Darnall, Blake Goodman, Charles German, Tyler Harrleson and Taylor Lampton, wrote a petition. Their cause: repealing the rue that prevents boys from removing their shirts during basketball games.

The rule, which is made by the district, says that students must be “appropriately clothed” at all times, prohibiting body painting. According to district athletic director Rusty Newman, it was intended to prevent students from painting messages on their chests that cold be offensive to the other team, as well as addressing the health risks of going shirtless in the winter.

The group, however, believes that blue-painted chests are an appropriate way to show support for East. If their campaign is successful, they will be at the first home game on Dec. 17 when the team plays Olathe East — and they will be covered in Lancer blue.

“There’s always a tradition for senior fans to do [to show support],” Miller said. “Last year it was costumes. This year we want it to be painting our chests.”

Senior Charles German said he didn’t want to follow last year’s traditions.

“We really didn’t like the whole costume idea,” he said. “We’ve painted our chests in years past and I don’t think there’s been any problem with it… We think it’s fun, that it’s not distracting or offensive.”

But as they try to start this tradition, Miller and his friends come up against a district rule preventing spectators from removing their shirts. It’s a rule they’re familiar with: they were stopped once last year after trying to take their shirts off at a game. They were told that they were in conflict with a district sportsmanship rule requiring that all spectators wear shirts at all times.

As juniors, Miller said, the boys “didn’t want to push it.” But they decided to try to change the rules for their senior year and their final basketball season at East. Aided by the Millers’ father, and attorney, they wrote a petition requesting that the school change the rule and allow spectator to remove their shirts in order to paint their chests and show support for their team.

The petition, which took only about a day to write, began circulating two and a half weeks ago. By passing it around in their classes, they gained about 825 signatures from students from all classes. They took it to the East-South game on Dec. 2, where they gained parents’ signatures as well as those of the basketball team and coaches.

According to German, no one has outright refused to sign the petition, although a few passed it along, unsure if they wanted to participate.

The Kansas High School Athletics Association, which regulates competitions between Kansas high schools, gives guidelines all schools must follow, but they leave specifics up to the individual districts and leagues to decide. They emphasize the principles of sportsmanship rather than exact rules that spectators and players must follow.

“Our rules are pretty general: all actions are to be for [the school], not against the [opponents]; positive, not negative or disrespectful,” Victor Sisk, assistant director of KSHSAA said. “We expect everyone to be courteous, but we expect schools to exercise self-control in matters like whether students are allowed to remove their shirts and paint on their chests… Eastern Kansas is different from western Kansas. Some schools consider that disrespectful or offensive. It depends on the school and the district.”

Newman said that the rules, while eventually routed through his office, were decided on by individual building principals.

“The rule in question is not an official rule,” he said. “Sunflower League principals and athletic directors decided that shirts would have to be worn at all times, at least at inside events. Shawnee Mission individual building principals decided that they wanted it to apply to all events.”

Though the group has gathered about 825 signatures from the East area, they’re not sure that just support from within East will put enough pressure on the district to change. Since the rule applies across the district, they may need help from other Shawnee Mission schools as well. According to Newman, change will have to come from each principal and athletic director at all five high schools. The group hasn’t begun, however, to pass the petition around anywhere else.

According to German, however, the have talked to athletic director Lane Green, who agreed to help get the petition through to the district once it was finished. For now, its future is uncertain: the group wanted to get even more signatures before they show it to the district, as well as possibly talking to students from other schools.

“We’re not sure when we’re going to [show it to the district],” German said. “We just hope they see that this is important to us and a lot of people support it, and that they’ll agree to change.”