re: Changes to LHSAA rules 2014-15

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Exact opposite

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Wrong.

The LHSAA spent over $150,000 on legal fees defending lawsuits in the last six months. They spent $90,000 on the Livonia fiasco alone. All of this would have gone to arbitration instead of the courts under this bill saving tax revenue.

As a general rule, take whatever the LHSAA says and consider it to be false.

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my best bet is designate a law firm in BR or a lawyer they already do business with. the idea should be that it should be a rubber stamp on whatever the LHSAA decides but give the appearence of impartiality

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Why would Louisiana taxpayers want a rubber stamp given the LHSAA's decisions over the past few years?

i wouldn't blame the LHSAA for litigious parents going through courts and the legislature... these people would just as soon have no rules and anything goes... the decisions being made here affect eligibility, so not many tax dollars are at stake. if an arbitrator rules clement mubungirwa eligible and someone gets hurt in one of his games and files suit, then taxpayers will be howling and rightly so

who would pick the arbitrator in each case? maybe if it was a lawyer working these cases pro bono it might save money...

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the decisions being made here affect eligibility, so not many tax dollars are at stake

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That is BS. In the Livonia case, an elgibility ruling from a kangaroo panel if upheld will cost the taxpayers of Pointe Coupee Parish $30,000.

That is a significant property interest for the taxpayers to eat, considering the sham of a hearing the LHSAA conducted in the matter.

I find it interesting that never once did the lawyers in the Livonia case say they applied their rule properly, or that they got it right, but rather there position was to the court "you can't do nothing about it" even going so far as to tell the judge "it doesn't matter that we violated his due process and equal protection rights, this court has no jurisdiction to tell us what to do".

I do have a solution though, because I agree no one wants to run to the courts everytime they have a problem.

The state already has a division of administrative law staffed with plenty of administrative judges. Thus, give jurisiction to the division of administrative law to hear appeals of eligibility matters and other rulings affecting students and schools, and make it loser pay. If the LHSAA conducts a sham hearing and gets it wrong, they pay. If some parents or school files a frivolous appeal, they pay.

No offense to Mr. Adelson and nola.com but they need to hire an attorney before reporting on court case holdings. That case did NOT declare the LHSAA a private entity. It was a very narrow holding which stated that LHSAA was not considered a public office for the sole purpose of the state's public records law.

That's it. The Supreme Court went to great lengths to limit the impact of the decision going as far as to describe the LHSAA has a quasi-public entity.

Furthermore, every single High School Athletic Association in the country that has asserted itself a private entity has lost. They all receive public funding; there is no way that can claim the are a private entity.

And the status of the LHSAA is irrelevant as this bill prevents public schools from being a member of any association that does not provide for third-party arbitration for appeals. It doesn't even address the LHSAA directly.

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Bill was signed into law today.

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Article from NOLA.com

Interesting how the bill doesnt even mention the LHSAA by name but it does say that schools must belong to an organization that offers arbitration.

So either the LHSAA offers arbitration or all of the public schools join another governing body

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The new legislation, which had drawn much focus and discussion from coaches and principals for months, requires third-party arbitration for eligibility issues for organizations in order for schools that receive government funding to be member.

"The governor signed the bill into law, and we think it's in the best interest of the membership of the association to abide by the law," Executive Director Kenny Henderson said.

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