Hey lifegate, whats the chances that TAPPS kicks them out after this year ?

Oh rats!
Now I got Neil Diamond stuck in my head.
Thanks a lot.

Actually,
it seems to me like a bigg
TAPPS snafu.
If they made a sabbath exception last year
then they're dumba$$es
for not doing it this year.
DUH
Remember,
TAPPS is just a UIL wannabe
so they think this way on purpose...

and that's how the fight got started.

its very interesting to me, how on monday Beren was very accepting of the TAPPS ruling humbly deciding to honor the Sabboth and make a religious stand as opposed to playing a basketball game, then two days later they hire a lawyer so that TAPPS will be forced to break their own rules and Beren can play, and still be done by sundown. looks like a 180 degree turn around in a matter of days to me. seems like there is something going on here that isnt being reported in the news... any dc people care to enlighten us??

I dunno. From some of the reports I've read, Mansfield ISD was never served the papers since TAPPS went ahead and made the accomodations to benefit Beren, which made any action against Mansfield ISD moot.

Since the gyms that TAPPS uses for these games are at high schools, TAPPS' contract with Mansfield ISD does not allow games prior to 4:30 on Friday. That's so that the TAPPS events will start after Mansfield high schools have dismissed classes for the day, not to inhibit religious liberty.

But this does raise the possibility that government agencies and facilities such as schools, government-operated civic facilities, etc. may be less likely to rent to faith-based groups because they could be brought into a totally-unrelated issue through litigation.

My guess is that TAPPS wanted to keep Mansfield ISD out of the courts and decided to make an accomodation so that their good relations with Mansfield ISD continued.

Where I would have an issue is if I were the administrators of Beren Academy. I guess I don't fault them for trying to get their team to state, but once the answer was no, ain't gonna happen, they should have made it clear to the mommas and poppas who filed this suit today that their actions were not going to be acceptable to school administration.

Eagle, I'm gonna bet you that some of the mommas and poppas, especially those with good political and legal connections, did this ... and I wouldn't be surpised if it were done without the knowledge of the school administrators, at least to some point.

Burton Adventist, a 7th Day Adventist school, has missed state several times because of this rule. I guess this tells you that the Jewish schools have better lawyers than the Adventists.

And I guess I'm gonna get in a lot of trouble for that ...

Well, in the words of ol' Gomer Pyle, suprise, suprise, suprise ...

Thanks to my old friend Jon Walk (who used to run the old walksportsservices.com web site for private schools back about 10 years ago):

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... abe5abdd1d


So the legal action was planned all along .....

Lewin said Thursday he was contacted about 10 days earlier by the father of Beren captain and point guard Isaac Mirwis and informed of a potential problem over the playoffs.

"I thought if we got to court there was no judge in the world who would uphold (TAPPS)," said Lewin, whose clients have included former President Richard Nixon, ex-Beatle John Lennon and actress Jodie Foster. "No way a remotely fair judge would say this makes any sense."

The lawsuit caught Beren officials off guard. Headmaster Harry Sinoff and coach Chris Cole only learned of the suit on Thursday morning, and both said they regretted that the situation reached the level of legal action.

And then the ultimate insult ... putting Dave Bliss in a better light than TAPPS.

The Beren controversy comes a year after another Orthodox Jewish school, the Texas Torah Institute of Dallas, competed for the 2A championship of a different state athletic league, the Texas Christian Athletic Association. That game was moved from Saturday afternoon to Saturday night through an agreement worked out by the association and the institute's opponent, Allen Academy of Bryan.

Allen, coached by former Baylor coach Dave Bliss, won the game, which ended around 11 p.m.

Bliss said Thursday that, while his school wasn't excited about playing late into the night, moving the game to accommodate the Dallas Jewish school was the only logical option.

"I didn't even think of doing anything different," he said.

Associated Press writer Danny Robbins contributed from Dallas.

(PS ... Of course, the Beren folks could have made it clear to the poppa involved that they would not send the team. And if you look at the T-CAL website, they list a "Texas Institute" in Dallas as a member. Considering that some in T-CAL consider a Catholic school non-Christian, I wonder how many of those same folks would be happy to know there's a Jewish school in their Christian school organization. But maybe that's just me swattin' at the hornet's nest with a stick.)

imho, if they were wanting to make a religious stand / send any sort of message, this was not the way to do it. all i get from this is that Beren is willing to break rules, that they have previously agreed to, and force the league they are in to accommodate their request because of religious reasons. to me, they are sending a very wrong message about the school as well as representing their religion poorly.

Beren just seems to want
the same consideration
that TAPPS has already another school in the past.
You people aren't looking at TAPPS hard enough.
I think it's a shame someone had to get a lawyer
to get TAPPS to pull their head out.

What the heck did TAPPS think those Jews would do?
They're a culture of survivors.
DUH
TAPPS is lucky to still have their head.

all true... but at the same time, is a rule not a rule??

Dog, my guess is that TAPPS might have won and gotten any TRO dismissed. But it would take a few weeks AND perhaps drag Mansfield ISD into the proceedings. Now, I don't have any inside information, but my GUESS is that TAPPS did not want to see that happen.

And the Beren momma/poppa lawyer wisely waited until Thursday morning to file suit when options would be limited.

Yeah, it's pretty frustrating. It does sound like that school administrators at Beren were not part of the legal action. I'll give the school the benefit of the doubt. And if we end up in the finals playing a late night game against Beren, I'll cheer for the Panthers and holler at the refs just like I would at an afternoon game against a different school. We'll survive the extra expense and hassle of changing our plans to accommodate Beren too, I'm sure. I'm gonna try my best to teach my kids about grace instead of teaching them about holding grudges and such. (It's gonna be REALLY hard, but I do hope to accomplish that anyway.) LOL

I do hope that TAPPS will be less eager to cash another dues check in the future when they are reviewing applications for membership from schools that are looking for a district for their kids to play in. This problem - for TAPPS as well as for Beren - could have been avoided if TAPPS would only accept schools that are able to participate in Friday night and Saturday games like 99% of the families and schools in Texas do. Schools that want to follow a different schedule need to compete with schools that prefer the same schedule. It doesn't matter what religion (or lack thereof) the school follows. If they can't participate in activities during the times that are convenient for everybody else, then they shouldn't join the league to begin with. Coming in as a "new guy" and then forcing everybody else that has been doing this for decades to inconvenience themselves in order to make things more convenient for you is pretty lame.

But I'm trying to smile and be gracious as best I can. So I better be quiet. :)

Yep. The lawyer saw an opportunity to grab a hostage (Mansfield) and took it. Pretty slimy.

It quit being a rule when TAPPS broke it the first time.

Yep.

Exactly.
TAPPS picked the wrong fight.
TAPPS would not have won that fight
against ANY other school.
They sealed their fate when they made an exception
THE FIRST TIME.
I don't get why they they didn't make an exception this time.
Oh, wait, they must have called the UIL
alignment monkey and asked them what they should do.
No way around it,
TAPPS screwed up.
Live and learn, again.

Defense has no further witnesses?
I didn't think so.
I rest my case.
BAM