Tavian Gaudiuso is a grade 12 student at Summerland Secondary School.

Tavian transferred from Penticton High to Summerland this fall because he was being bullied.

Tavian is obsessed with basketball, and looked forward to playing his last year with the Summerland team.

However, this was not to be....

Because Tavian and his family "DID NOT" fully pursue bullying allegations against the boys at Pentiction High, (in FEAR of repercussions by the bullies), he is ineligible to play basketball for 12 months.

BC School Sports, who is the governing body of school sports in BC, DENIED Tavians transfer to play with Summerland Secondary.

They also DENIED an appeal that was filed by Tavian, despite letters of support from both Summerland Secondary and Penticton High.

 "Bullying is one of the eligibility policies that we have to allow a student to play,” said Jordan Abney, executive director at B.C, School Sports.

"In this case, without getting into specifics based on the fact that the transfer was not approved, it would probably lead most people to suspect that it didn’t meet the threshold or the definition that we have in place,” Abney explained.

Basically, because the bullying allegations were NOT fully pursued by Tavian, BC School Sports WILL NOT consider this case as part of its "Bullying Eligibility Policy!!!"

BC School Sports maintains they are just applying the rules.

“It’s too bad and it’s nothing that we take enjoyment from. We want kids playing."

“But at the same time it’s our job to to apply the rules that our schools have put in place to protect school sport as a bigger entity. Unfortunately that comes with some costs or unfortunate circumstances,” Abney added.

BCSS needs a complete OVERHAUL if this is an example of their competency in governing our children in school sports!!

The primary job of a governing body is to protect the rights, interests and wellbeing of all the members on whose behalf the organization is working.

BCSS's own mandate is:

"To foster the development of good character through positive & equitable school-based sport experiences.

BCSS needs to follow their mandate!!

Apply the "Bullying Eligibility Policy" to this case, REVERSE their decision, and amend the rules so this doesn't happen AGAIN!!

Let Tavian play High School Basketball!!

This is NOT the NBA!!

For his part, Tavian thinks his case got caught up in recruitment guidelines preventing star players from transferring to another school, even though he says he’s not a stand-out player.

 

“It’s not very encouraging, I wanted to play the sport I love in my last year of high school,” Tavian said