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INDIANAPOLIS
--July 2006) The NCAA
will no longer accept transcripts from 15 so-called “nontraditional
high schools,” an avenue by which many black students with academic
potential but low grades had been able to rise through the cracks of
college admission. Within
days, the NCAA is expected to add as many as twenty additional schools
to their “hit list.”
“Many of these young people
have been condemned to inferior public education systems and many of
these non-traditional, secondary schools offer second chances for them
to achieve their dreams of college education,” says
Montgomery
attorney Don Jackson. Jackson, one of the top sports attorneys in the
country, believes that the NCAA’s path could eventually jeopardize an
otherwise bright future for many minority students who don’t come from
educationally nurturing environments.
"Every
time something happens, the NCAA throws a big net out and
overreacts," said
Jackson
. "The next step is making value judgments about the quality of
public education in certain states. “Their hyperactive approach has
the potential to adversely impact literally hundreds of minority
students.”
The poster child of the
NCAA’s investigation and its media spin has been
University
High School
, a
Miami
correspondence school that had no classes or instructors and operated
almost without supervision, allegedly offering diplomas for $399.
“These ‘bad apple’ examples could result in adverse
consequences for innocent, legitimate institutions of learning,” says
Jackson
.
"Unconditionally,
I will say this: There are some schools that need to be closed. But you
can't open an investigation in February and then a few months later come
out with a broad brush and say this is what we've found. You run the
risk of affecting innocent schools and kids.
The impression I have is they have come in and acted in a very
hasty manner, and it's liable to affect a bunch of unfortunate
kids."
“African
American youth who have the potential to utilize their college
educations to better their lives and the lives of their families could
remain among society’s disenfranchised if the NCAA’s actions go
unchallenged,” says
Jackson
.
www.thesportsgroup.org
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