BUFFALO (WBEN) - The Buffalo Public Schools Athletic Department announced it will not be offering the Varsity Unified Basketball Program for the Spring of 2021.
Beginning the second week of May, the district will offer every varsity sport traditionally offered in its spring season except varsity Unified Basketball, and that has angered many members of the community.
Unified Sports combine athletes with intellectual disabilities and athletes without intellectual disabilities to create athletic teams for training and competition, and Nasarr Bentley, who has autism, explained the impact the program has had on him.
"Playing for Unified Sports has changed my life and for other kids that I played with from Olmsted, and I'll be sad that Unified Sports will be closed for the season," said Bentley. "Playing for Unified has been the best years of my life."
Parents, coaches and teachers who attended the press conference pointed to what they believe to be a lack of equality being demonstrated by the district in this case.
"The athletes were expecting to play, and all the sudden the district said they wouldn't," began Edward Speidel, a parent of a special needs child at Frederick Law Olmsted. "My challenge is that the district talks about equality - there's no equality when you let a general ed student play basketball, but you don't let a special ed kid play. It's embarrassing; it's insulting, and we can't stand for it."
"These kids just want to compete - they want to compete just like the students who are typical students," said Coach Jim Bartram. "All we're asking for is to get together and make this thing work so that all the kids can play."
The Buffalo Public Schools Athletic Department released a statement regarding the status of Unified Sports:
"Plans for expansion of Unified Sports are underway for the next school year. While we will not be offering Unified Sports at this time, we look forward to planning with the community and stakeholders in the near future to launch a top notch and expanded BPS Unified Sports program for next year and beyond...Again, while we are disappointed that we can't offer Unified Sports at this time, we are looking forward to launching an expanded BPS Unified Sports Program for next year and beyond."
