CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals issued a memorandum decision finding that a former high school student did not follow the proper procedure in seeking a WVSSAC waiver.
The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission and its director, David Price, appealed a decision from Logan Circuit Court dated Sept. 15, 2021, which prevented them from declaring a student, J.G., ineligible for school activities.
According to WVSSAC rules, students are allowed to participate in interscholastic programs for four consecutive years after entering 9th grade, based on semesters of enrollment and attendance, not participation.
In this case, J.G. began 9th grade in the fall of 2017 and participated in football seasons, except for the one in 2019-20, according to an Oct. 18 memorandum decision by the West Virginia Supreme Court.
Justice Bill Wooton was deemed disqualified and did not participate in the decision.
In the summer of 2021, before his fifth year of high school, he practiced with the football team, however, the WVSSAC, considering his previous years of participation, deemed him ineligible for the 2021-22 school year.
J.G. then petitioned Logan Circuit Court on Aug. 30, 2021, seeking a temporary restraining order or a writ of prohibition to prevent his ineligibility. He argued "undue hardship" due to spending part of an eligible academic year in a juvenile detention center in another state.
However, he did not follow the proper procedure, which involved seeking a waiver from the WVSSAC's board of directors, the decision states.
The circuit court granted J.G. a preliminary injunction, putting the matter on hold pending consideration by the board of directors. It was later agreed by both parties that the case was moot because J.G. had completed his athletic and academic careers in the West Virginia secondary school system. Despite this, the court ruled in favor of J.G., granting the preliminary injunction.
"We find that the circuit court abused its discretion in granting Mr. G. a preliminary injunction," the decision states.
The appellate court found that the preliminary injunction was wrongly granted, as J.G. failed to follow the proper procedure to seek relief.
"Here, the circuit court inappropriately granted Mr. G. preliminary, injunctive relief because Mr. G. could not succeed on the merits of his case," the court wrote in the decision. "A fundamental basis of our school activities jurisprudence is that the manner in which the Secondary Schools Activities Commission applies its rules is not subject to judicial review..."
As the matter was now moot, with J.G. having completed his education, the appellate court directed the circuit court to dismiss the case from its docket.
"While we find that the preliminary injunction was improvidently granted by the circuit court and must be vacated, we further direct that the circuit court dismiss this matter from its docket because it is undisputed that the controversy between the parties is no longer live," the decision states.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs and defendants, as well as the WVSSAC, all declined to comment on the matter.
West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number: 21-0836