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Dear Editor:
On Monday, November 23rd the Dodgeville School Board voted unanimously to pause on starting winter co-curricular activities for the Dodgeville School District. These activities include all winter sports, the school play and club activities. As a result the group Let Them Participate was created.
We are a group of parents, citizens, and students who are advocating for co-curricular activities to start. We appreciate and understand the tough decisions our BOE and district administrator are forced to make during this COVID-19 pandemic. However we feel that the mental health, emotional health, and all around well-being of our students is just as important as their physical well-being.
We understand the current climate that we are facing and the gravity that COVID has had on all of us, both directly and indirectly. This is not lost on us.
Many of our students today are struggling across the board - and mental health is at the top of that list. We are asking you to give these students hope. Give them hope at a time when they are truly struggling and need it most. Allowing these students the opportunity to play the sports they love, to participate on the stage they love, to get back to participating in the clubs they are so passionate about... gives them a sense of hopefulness and belonging that they desperately need.
Currently there are many students struggling academically - many of us who are involved with this group are witnessing this within our own homes, with our own children. Allowing students the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities is one way we can turn this around.
For many of these students, their true passion may not lie in what they are learning in the classroom, but rather what they are able to contribute out on the basketball court, or up on the stage. When students are involved in these extra curriculars, it holds them to a higher standard. It allows their advisors and coaches to motivate them to do better in the classroom - show up consistently, be an active participant, and improve their grades. If through the involvement and ability to participate in winter extracurriculars we can improve the attendance, participation and grades for this student population, wouldn't that be worth it? Without these social outlets, our teenage students are at risk of being involved in much riskier situations that are most certainly not in any type of controlled, or safe environment.
There are communities all around us who are finding ways to allow their students to participate in winter extra curricular activities. With an open mind, we are hopeful that Dodgeville School District can find a way to offer these same opportunities to our students here. Perhaps an extra waiver needs to be signed by parents and students in order to assume the added risk associated with participation during these times. Perhaps we limit spectators even more than we did during fall sporting events. With an open mind, we can find a way.
We are asking for the BOE to allow these kids the opportunity to participate in winter extracurricular activities. We believe that where there is the will to do so, we will find the way. Dodgeville School District, we owe it to our students to find a way.
Susan Busch, Dodgeville, WI
Let them Participate Parent Group