A Catholic high school on the North Shore will not have its postseason sports ban reconsidered by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, which imposed the ban last month, according to the Boston Globe.
The MIAA's Board of Directors voted on Aug. 8 to deny Bishop Fenwick High School's appeal, the Globe reported, citing a letter to the school Monday.
The president of Bishop Fenwick High School said last month the community was baffled by the decision from the MIAA to prohibit its student-athletes from post-season tournament play for the 2023-24 school year. He said Bishop Stanwick complied with all of the MIAA's rules.
The MIAA is "now penalizing all of our kids in all of our sports in all seasons for the entire year," President Tom Nunan said, all over a fifth-year waiver for one student in one sport.
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The MIAA's letter said Bishop Fenwick violated Rule 87.6, "which requires accountability on the part of its members," and called the conduct "serious, egregious and repeated." It didn't detail the conduct, but said the governing body's board of directors voted unanimously to mete out the punishment.
Nunan said the school accepted the result after their final appeal was denied over the fifth-year waiver and the student-athlete involved did not touch the field.
The MIAA's Monday letter accused the school's response to the issue of "minimizing its past conduct," according to the Globe.
“The Board unanimously decided that the penalty should remain unchanged because Bishop Fenwick’s response does not acknowledge the multiple manifestations of its prior misconduct, and it continues to mischaracterize and minimize its past conduct,” Bob Baldwin, MIAA executive director, wrote in the letter. “The inescapable conclusion therefore is that Bishop Fenwick did not take accountability for its conduct and rule compliance as it does not make a clear and unequivocal, explicit statement of institutional acceptance of compliance with all of MIAA’s rules and provide a full, unqualified assurance of future compliance as required of all members."
Bishop Fenwick is a private Catholic high school on Margin Street in Peabody.
