The school board reversed their decision regarding the winter swimming and diving season this morning. We will monitor the implementation of the safety protocols to ensure our athletes remain on the pool deck. Thank you for maintaining the pressure required to reach this outcome.
December 18, 2020
Final supporters
The recent decision by ACPS for TC Williams High School not to participate in winter sports (specifically Swimming and Diving) is patently unfair and is doing an injustice to the young athletes who have given so much to the sport that they love. ACPS has come to this decision regardless of the fact that the VHSL Executive Director John Haun has worked closely with both Governor Northam’s administration and the Virginia Department of Health to outline how high school sports can be played safely- detailed in 39 pages of regulations. This was not done frivolously, but ACPS has chosen to ignore those recommendations.
Many schools in other states successfully played fall sports without outbreaks and in places where the COVID numbers are substantially higher than in Alexandria. Obviously, we all need to make every effort to keep our children safe, however...the club swimming and diving model in Northern VA (since June 2020) has proven to be extremely effective at keeping our kids training and competing in their sport, with very low COVID cases. Keep in mind that the pools in Northern Virginia are CHLORINATED- an environment proven effective for many decades at inhibiting the transmission of communicable disease. Unlike many contact sports, Swimming and Diving are about as “COVID safe” as can be. The TC High School swimming and diving programs are in no way mandatory. If parents aren’t comfortable having their kids participate, then the answer for those folks is a simple one: Don’t participate.
The pandemic in 2020 has taken much from our children...in-person learning, graduations, homecomings and daily interaction with friends and colleagues. And now ACPS wants to extract an even higher too from their athletes.
It's true there's work involved in making a competitive swimming and diving season happen: a safe training and competition environment, reduction in team size, and appropriate distancing are all things that need to be figured out. If Potomac Valley Swimming has found a way to accomplish this with success, then why must the TC athletes be penalized?
Often in life the most difficult things are the things most worth doing. Isn’t this something that has been constantly reinforced to our kids through sports? “Never take the easy way out” is a motto our young athletes have been taught throughout the years, and it's precisely what ACPS is doing. Easy for them...but hardest on our kids.
Updates
November 22, 2020
The volume of support has reached a level where the school board can no longer ignore our formal request for a meeting. I am currently finalizing the legal arguments for our presentation to the administration. Expect a briefing on the outcome of that discussion by the end of the week.
Reached 100 supporters
November 22, 2020
38 Comments
Teen mental health issues are skyrocketing. They need sports and other activities. Swimming and Diving is being done safely nationwide.
I fully support the already stated comments about asking ACPS to consider each sport individually in terms of its level of risk and the evidence from other communities in terms of how they have mitigated that risk, rather than making blanket decisions that have devastating consequences for student athletes. I join the community in asking ACPS to reconsider.
Chlorine is the most commonly used disinfectant in public and private pools, and for good reason. It has a long history of successfully killing viruses in the water, including SARS, another type of coronavirus. The CDC says, similarly, that "proper operation and disinfection of pools, hot tubs, and water playgrounds should kill the virus that causes COVID-19."
Swimming is BY FAR the most safe sport during Covid. All of the local swim clubs have been practicing for months with almost NO cases of Covid.
There is no basis for ACPS to make this unilateral decision and not allow swim & dive to proceed . The guidelines put in place by the state's health department are more than adequate to enable those comfortable with their children competing and getting exercise to do so.
I'm signing this because my son's friend is a swimmer. Please consider signing ALL petitions you see so we can end this travesty.
This lockdown targeting kids is getting more ridiculous by the day.
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The school board reversed their decision regarding the winter swimming and diving season this morning. We will monitor the implementation of the safety protocols to ensure our athletes remain on the pool deck. Thank you for maintaining the pressure required to reach this outcome.
December 18, 2020
Final supporters
The recent decision by ACPS for TC Williams High School not to participate in winter sports (specifically Swimming and Diving) is patently unfair and is doing an injustice to the young athletes who have given so much to the sport that they love. ACPS has come to this decision regardless of the fact that the VHSL Executive Director John Haun has worked closely with both Governor Northam’s administration and the Virginia Department of Health to outline how high school sports can be played safely- detailed in 39 pages of regulations. This was not done frivolously, but ACPS has chosen to ignore those recommendations.
Many schools in other states successfully played fall sports without outbreaks and in places where the COVID numbers are substantially higher than in Alexandria. Obviously, we all need to make every effort to keep our children safe, however...the club swimming and diving model in Northern VA (since June 2020) has proven to be extremely effective at keeping our kids training and competing in their sport, with very low COVID cases. Keep in mind that the pools in Northern Virginia are CHLORINATED- an environment proven effective for many decades at inhibiting the transmission of communicable disease. Unlike many contact sports, Swimming and Diving are about as “COVID safe” as can be. The TC High School swimming and diving programs are in no way mandatory. If parents aren’t comfortable having their kids participate, then the answer for those folks is a simple one: Don’t participate.
The pandemic in 2020 has taken much from our children...in-person learning, graduations, homecomings and daily interaction with friends and colleagues. And now ACPS wants to extract an even higher too from their athletes.
It's true there's work involved in making a competitive swimming and diving season happen: a safe training and competition environment, reduction in team size, and appropriate distancing are all things that need to be figured out. If Potomac Valley Swimming has found a way to accomplish this with success, then why must the TC athletes be penalized?
Often in life the most difficult things are the things most worth doing. Isn’t this something that has been constantly reinforced to our kids through sports? “Never take the easy way out” is a motto our young athletes have been taught throughout the years, and it's precisely what ACPS is doing. Easy for them...but hardest on our kids.
Updates
November 22, 2020
The volume of support has reached a level where the school board can no longer ignore our formal request for a meeting. I am currently finalizing the legal arguments for our presentation to the administration. Expect a briefing on the outcome of that discussion by the end of the week.
Reached 100 supporters
November 22, 2020
38 Comments
As an official for PVS, I can attest that practices and meets can be run safely! Please reconsider.
Teen mental health issues are skyrocketing. They need sports and other activities. Swimming and Diving is being done safely nationwide.
I fully support the already stated comments about asking ACPS to consider each sport individually in terms of its level of risk and the evidence from other communities in terms of how they have mitigated that risk, rather than making blanket decisions that have devastating consequences for student athletes. I join the community in asking ACPS to reconsider.
Chlorine is the most commonly used disinfectant in public and private pools, and for good reason. It has a long history of successfully killing viruses in the water, including SARS, another type of coronavirus. The CDC says, similarly, that "proper operation and disinfection of pools, hot tubs, and water playgrounds should kill the virus that causes COVID-19."
Swimming is BY FAR the most safe sport during Covid. All of the local swim clubs have been practicing for months with almost NO cases of Covid.
There is no basis for ACPS to make this unilateral decision and not allow swim & dive to proceed . The guidelines put in place by the state's health department are more than adequate to enable those comfortable with their children competing and getting exercise to do so.
I'm signing this because my son's friend is a swimmer. Please consider signing ALL petitions you see so we can end this travesty.
This lockdown targeting kids is getting more ridiculous by the day.
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As an official for PVS, I can attest that practices and meets can be run safely! Please reconsider.