In the midst of Tuesday night’s School Board meeting, a thunderbolt struck the School District Superintendent.
While listening to community testimony, Dr. Myrna Rivera Cote may have found a resolution to the thorny case of a Culver City High School senior who was pointedly eliminated from the roster of the girls soccer team last month over a commitment dispute.
The pivotal moment for the Superintendent came when activist parent George Laase passionately related an account to the Board of how his daughter had been similarly victimized twice, six and seven years ago.
For the first time since the present case began roiling the community, said Dr. Cote, she realized the complaining Cohn family’s problem was not a one-time fluke.
“This is crazy,” she thought to herself. “And it has been going on a long time,” she said.
The troubling conflict — a student’s commitment to simultaneous pursuits, one athletic, one academic — seems to be systemic.
It most recently surfaced shortly before Thanksgiving. Maya Cohn, looking forward to her third year on the girls soccer team, was left off the roster by Coach Scott Mair. The understood reason was that her parallel commitment to the YMCA’s Youth and Governance program — also for the third year — interfered with her soccer responsibilities.
Apparently all that is at issue in this case is whether Ms. Cohn would miss a playoff match in mid-February, for which the team may or may not qualify.
Barely hours after the School Board embraced the parent John Cohn’s petition to closely examine the case of his daughter's exclusion from the team, Dr. Cote hit upon a more discreet response.
“We need to sit down as adults and try to come up with what is best for the kids,” she said.
The Superintendent’s proposal is to hold a summit meeting for the principal players, including the YMCA and the high school.
Will the potential negotiations include consideration of the Cohn family’s No. 1 goal, Ms. Cohn’s reinstatement before the season grows much older?
“I don’t know,” Dr. Cote said.
If the summit succeeds, the School Board would be left with making a broader determination for future commitment conflicts by coaches and students.
