I spoke with Governor Steve Bullock's office whose aide took notes on the anti-family-golf rule to pass along to the Governor. In the meantime, she recommended that I speak with the Montana Office of Public Instruction to make them aware of the problem. I called and spoke with the superintendent, Dr. Tim Tharp. Dr. Tharpe informed me that unless there is discrimination involved, no student has the constitutional right to participate in any high school sport. Therefore, he said, the Montana High School Association is fully within their rights to forbid all parents from watching golf matches. When I mentioned to Dr. Tharp that this rule was indeed discrimination, he shot back that anyone can play golf no matter what their gender or race. I told Dr. Tharp that there are other ways to discriminate, including against families of a minority sport. I said try telling the football families of Montana that they have to sit in the parking lot during the Championship game and hear about it later from their kids. They would never get away with it. I said the only reason it has worked with golf is because there aren’t enough golfing families in Montana to mount a proper protest. Dr. Tharp flatly said that it was out of his jurisdiction and there was nothing he could do about it. I got the strong sense that Dr. Tharp had already made up his mind about this rule so I asked him if he was even familiar with the situation. Dr. Tharp then admitted to me that he was a former Montana state athletic director and that he ran high school golf tournaments for many years and that for all those years he had enforced the rule forbidding parents from watching golf matches. Thank you for signing this petition, which will help to send the Montana High School Association and administrators like Dr. Tharp the strong message that it is not okay for them to pass and enforce discriminatory rules forbidding parents from watching their children play golf. Just to be clear, while Dr. Tharpe once enforced this rule on parents, and once had a vote to help change it, he is no longer in a position to either enforce or change it.