Salado, TX – In a nod to the “uniqueness” of its membership, the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) has announced as a matter of policy that it will no longer schedule statewide high school sporting competitions which conflict with “the Sabbath and religious days of observance.” The change is already in effect for the 2012-2013 school year.
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TAPPS previously only prohibited competitions that coincided with Christian days of observance.
“As the TAPPS membership has grown, so has the uniqueness of TAPPS member schools,” a statement on the TAPPS website reads. “In order to provide the opportunity for all of our member schools to participate in team sports, the TAPPS Executive Board believes that accommodations are necessary to protect the Sabbath and religious days of observance of our schools.”
The policy change comes as welcome news to one local Orthodox Jewish school in Houston. As previously reported on VIN, Beren Academy was forced to file a lawsuit against the Mansfield Independent School Districts last spring when it initially refused to reschedule a Friday night basketball tournament which conflicted with the Sabbath. The tournament was eventually rescheduled, and the Beren’s Academy team won the semifinal, but lost the championship game.
Orthodox Jewish schools are not the only ones applauding the change in the TAPPS by-laws. Kevin Klein, the athletic director at Arlington Burton Adventist Academy, an affiliate of the Seventh-day Adventist church, told the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/S0uYls) that he felt “elation” about the news.
“Pure elation, really – relief that we don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Klein said. “That announcement means a lot to our entire student body. You start thinking about the kids. They won’t have to be without that opportunity. I thought about all the battles we fought, all the times we didn’t get to go. It all means something, so much excitement that we’re going to be in an organization that understands.”
beautiful!
now if only the “jewish state” would give shabbos the same respect.
I think it’s Salado
How about that? But in what calls itself Jewish state the authorities couldn’t be bothered with such considerations: the football league games are routinely scheduled on Shabbos; they are played on other days of the week as an exception.
Gut Shabbos, Texas!
It was a very nice thing to do and showed the old-fashioned politeness of Texan and Southern culture. Shame it took a lawsuit to bring those traits out.
The Texas association TAPPS is not related to the state. Note is the football league in Israel. Of course they should respect Shabbos. Hashem gave men free will to observe or not bilurden don’t blame the state of Israel for individual decisions about sports.
Don’t kid yourself. This is just a private organization. Texas is the state that recently tried to replace the speaker of the assembly because he’s Jewish instead of “Christian.”