Cy Turner is a 12th grade senior at Pacific Grove High School.  He moved to Kansas during his 11th grade season.  His transfer was due to a personal and familial hardship related to his mental health amid remote-only learning in the Pacific Grove Unified School District.  Cy made the courageous decision to leave his mother and siblings to live with his father in Kansas where he attended school in-person during spring 2021.  He chose traditional face to face learning on a high school campus rather than continue to flounder in-remote only education.  While in Kansas, he played varsity baseball.  

In August 2021, Pacific Grove Unified School District removed their remote-only learning policy.  Cy returned to California to resume face to face instruction where he hoped to play baseball during his senior season. (Not coincidentally, in February 2022, Pacific Grove Unified School District announced the employment of "licensed mental health therapist", Ms. Audrey Cordova.) 

On February 2, 2022, the California Interscholastic Federation Central Coast Section (CIFCCS) declared Cy was ineligible for high school varsity baseball.  CIF does not acknowledge Covid-19 or a student's mental health and well being as a qualified hardship for transferring schools.  Cy Turner will not play baseball his senior season with his twin brother and senior classmates.  Please help us urge CIFCCS to change bad policy that needlessly punishes student athletes for choosing personal freedom.  

Current CIF/CCS Bylaw 207 (B 2 c i-viii) only recognizes transfers of whole families of married parents.  It fails to recognize a student athlete's mental health or disability as a personal hardship despite the CIF mission statement on equity.  Commissioner David Grissom (dgrissom@cifccs.org) indicated via email Covid-19 is NOT a hardship and is not recognized as a qualifying hardship that would allow a student to transfer schools without penalty.  This policy is outdated and is most likely to punish student-athletes whose parents never married and or experience financial hardships.  

The mission statement of CIF is focused on equity, quality, character and academic development, but their transfer policy is inequitable.  A student athlete exercising the freedom of choice to transfer schools does not conflict with the CIF mission statement; so why are CIF administrators focused on controlling the movement of academically and behaviorally eligible student athletes?  

CIF has the power to change or suspend policies.  High school athletes already lost most of their 2020 sports seasons due to Covid-19. NCAA athletes received additional eligibility.  In fact, collegiate athletes are now free to transfer schools without punishment.  Middle school children are allowed to transfer schools without punishment of sports eligibility.  Why are high school athletes punished by outdated, biased policy?  Cy Turner and other student athletes, such as Jessica from Archbishop Riordan High School committed no crimes.  (The reason we know Jessica is experiencing something similar is because CIFCCS copied and pasted her hardship letter into Cy's letter.  Presumably, high school student athletes of California are worthy of a copy and paste effort.)

Let's reform or defund the California Interscholastic Federation.  Let's move forward from outdated policies and away from bureaucratic purveyors of the status quo.  Let's end punishing high school students who transfer.  Let's end sit out periods.  Let's end students with no academic or behavioral issues being ruled completely ineligible to play a sport.  Let's give our K-12 students more than a copy/paste rubber stamp.

If you agree, please help bring awareness to this issue.  Sign and share this petition so future student-athletes have better experiences than today's students.  Please email CIFCCS Commissioner Dave Grissom (dgrissom@cifccs.org) or your local CIF commissioners and ask why a global pandemic is not considered a hardship to high school students and their families.  Free Cy Turner!  Free Jessica and all the other California high school athletes out there being punished by policies that do not speak to equity, quality, character or academic development.  

#freeCyTurner
#freeJessica

CIF Executive Officers | https://www.cifstate.org/governance/exec_comm/members
Dr. Monica Colunga, president;  monicacolunga@iusd.orgMarty Bitter, President-elect; martybitter@maderausd.org
James Perry, District Athletic Director; JPerry@hbuhsd.edu
John Becker; jbecker@rjuhsd.us
Scott Giusti; sgiusti@sandi.net
Neezer McNab; nmcnab@tafthigh.org
Rianne Pfaltzgraff; pfaltzgraffp@mdusd.org

CIFCCS Officers
Steve Sell, president; ssell@smuhsd.org
Natalie Ayres, vice president; nayres@pacbay.org
Julie Berggren; julie.berggren@gilroyunified.org
Peggy Pughe; margaret.pughe@pvusd.net
Frank Rodriguez; frodriguez@shsschools.org
Melissa Schmidt; mschmidt@seq.org
Joe Berticevich; jberticevich@sjusd.org
Gregory Shelby; gshelby@scusd.net
David Sullivan; sullivan@palmaschool.org
Ryan Realini; rrealini@vcs.net
David Grissom; dgrissom@cifccs.org
Marco Sanchez, msanchez@cifccs.org