Legislative Council notebook: New penalties for providing false info in transfer process
AURORA — A new bylaw passed Thursday will require all students involved in a transfer waiver to provide accurate information in the process.
It sounds like a mere formality, this new requirement which was passed by the Legislative Council at the Radisson Hotel Denver Southeast, but it seeks to cut down on dishonesty in the transfer process. The new bylaw will penalize those who provide “incorrect, inaccurate, incomplete of false or fraudulent information” in “any aspect” of the transfer process.
It will take effect in 2016-17.
“It says a lot about where our schools want to be in terms of ethics and morality, and what high school sports are supposed to be about,” said CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico. “It’s just another protection for schools, to prove that schools are doing all they can.”
Among the potential penalties under the new bylaw:
- If the inaccurate information comes from the student, or their parent or guardian, “that student is subject to immediate ineligibility for CHSAA competition at any level in any sport for a period of up to 12 calendar months.”
- If the athlete played in any contests, those contest will be forfeit.
- If “someone associated with a school” was involved in providing inaccurate information, “or knowingly allows others to do so,” the team will be placed on restriction — barring them from the postseason.
- If school personnel were involved, they may be placed on probation or restriction, or the school’s CHSAA membership may even be revoked.
It should be noted that, just like any other process involving the penalization of a student-athlete, team or school personnel, there will be an appeals process under which parties can appeal any penalties.
This new bylaw, which will reside in rule 1800.74, can be found here in its entirety.
It is just the latest movement on the transfer rule, which was a heavy topic of conversation at the January Legislative Council meet. There, the group created a new transfer rule subcommittee — which has already met.
Additionally, there was a proposal brought to this April meeting which outright sought to change the transfer rule. But it was overwhelmingly rejected, likely because the Legislative Council wants to see what that transfer subcommittee will come up with.
That subcommittee ultimately will bring forward a new bylaw proposal, but it does not have a timetable. The earliest it could bring a proposal would be at the Legislative Council meeting in January 2017, meaning the any new rule would not be implemented until at least the 2017-18 school year.
Notables:
- All team sports have officially adopted the use of RPI for postseason qualification. A number of them did so in January, and joining them were basketball, hockey and boys and girls lacrosse on Thursday.
- Hockey’s revolutionary new tiered alignment passed easily. That may be good news for a sport like girls lacrosse, which may want to follow suit.
- Practice at state facilities has been disallowed, unless specifically allowed within that sport’s bulletin.
- Each of the CLOC proposals failed. It means Heritage will stay in 4A swim, Loveland will stay in 5A girls soccer, and Alameda will remain in 3A wrestling.
- New dates for football equipment were approved.
- Rick Logan, the district AD at Thompson Schools, was approved as a CHSAA board member for 2016-18.
- There was a lot of action in basketball, including the rejection of a 64-team tournament field in 4A and 5A. A complete breakdown is available here.
