Rainbow parents want kids to be allowed to compete in city track championship despite strike
'It's extremely disheartening for the Rainbow kids'
Some parents in Sudbury are pushing for their children to be able to compete in next week's city track and field championships despite a secondary school teachers' strike in the Rainbow board.
Sports for Rainbow high school students have been cancelled since the strike started April 27.
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Sudbury's English public secondary school teachers' strike enters third week
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Sudbury Rainbow secondary school teachers' strike worries student athletes
But with the city track and field championship now looming, Philippa Spoel is among a group of parents pushing the board to find a way for Rainbow kids to compete.
Spoel's daughter is part of the track and field team at Rainbow school.
"It's extremely disheartening for the Rainbow kids because it's not as if all high schools in Ontario are not doing this," she said.
"Rainbow is one of just three school boards where the high school students are not having this opportunity."
Spoel said she's been contacting board officials to see if supervision for Rainbow students at the city championship could be provided by administrators or board officials.
Parents are not asking any teachers to break their strike protocols, she said.
The Rainbow District School Board has said all sports at its high schools are cancelled for the duration of the strike.
"Rules are ways of managing a special situation and I would hope that our rules can accommodate this special situation," Spoel said.
Some students could lose university or college scholarship opportunities if they can't compete in the city championship and advance to the regional and provincial competitions, she added.