Voice Of Post

Michael Kelley letterman's jacket, A staple of everyone's high school experience was the letterman's jacket, whether you wore one yourself or just saw them in the hallways, everyone remembers the garment. In general, you only wear a letterman's jacket if you're on a varsity team but in this case Wichita East High School student Michael Kelley received one not for being a varsity player but for participating in extracurricular special needs basketball. Michael lives with both Down Syndrome and autism.

No one seemed to have any problem with Michael sporting his jacket in school, not teachers and certainly not the actual varsity basketball team, so imagine Jolinda Kelley's surprise when Michael was suddenly asked to remove his jacket on March 26 and was given a plain sweatshirt to wear instead.

After asking about the incident Jolinda learned that someone had complained to the school about Michael being able to wear a letterman's jacket because he wasn't on a varsity team. Who complained exactly? Was it a school official? Was it a member of one of the school's varsity teams? No. The asinine complaint came from another parent. It's not clear at this time if this parent has a child who does play varsity or just likes to rain on the harmless parades of high school students. Because the letter Jolinda used on Michael's jacket was an official one, the school is now saying that the jacket technically does violate school dress code.

When asked if the school would consider issuing official letterman's jackets to special needs students who participate in extracurricular sports, the principal of the school Ken Thiessen said “We have considered it, and our decision was no. We decided that is not appropriate in our situation because it is not a varsity level competition.” But who would it really hurt? It's not like letterman's jackets matter after high school anyways.