Louisiana kids barred from school sports after parents' divorce leads to move

Two breakout athletes who switched high schools because of their parents' divorce are unable to compete due to a ruling by the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.

April McGuin moved her four children to Covenant Christian Academy in March after a divorce. She said it was for convenience, education and cost. However, the move coincided with her two high-school-aged sons' uncle, and coach, Jesse Turner also leaving Ellender Memorial High School and moving to Covenant Christian: Turner in February, and the Jaden and Jahari Carter in March. Because of that move, the LHSAA ruled undue influence and barred the teens from competing in high school sports for one calendar year.

McGuin said she has retained attorney.

"I felt nobody took into consideration the divorce," she said. "They just made an opinion on what they thought, because Jesse was their uncle."

Throughout football season, and now, the Carters can practice with their team but cannot compete on the field against other schools. With basketball season approaching, it will be the same. The two said the experience has been disheartening.

"We practice and support our team, but it's hard not being able to actually be on the field competing with them," Jahari Carter said. "We just want to play."

McGuin said her sons had rising sports careers, and coaches from both schools acknowledged that the teens were being scouted. She said that because of this decision, both have spent this football season sitting out, and will likely miss out on basketball season, too.

She said she moved the children to their new school to bring all the children to the same location. She has four in total. Prior to bringing them all to Covenant Christian Academy, they were spread out across three schools: St. Gregory, Grand Caillou Middle and Ellender.

"As a single mother with limited help, I needed them all in one place," McGuin said. Asked why Covenant and not some other school, she said, "Because, honestly, they were the cheapest, and I know for my kids, the private school setting is what's best for them."

Jaden and Jahari were in private school until seventh grade, according to their mother, but they wanted to try public school. McGuin said the two did well in middle school, but their grades began to slip at Ellender. This furthered her decision to move them back to private school. According to McGuin, she was going to move them in December, but she didn't want to rush her kids, so she waited for the next school year.

When students transfer, the LHSAA sends a 13-question document to the school the student left. It includes basic information, and its final question asks whether the principal thinks the student is eligible to compete. According to documents obtained by the Houma Courier/Thibodaux Daily Comet, the principal for Ellender Memorial High School, Markita E Grant, said the Carters were not eligible.

Grant cited the LHSAA rule 2.1.5.3, it states that "a student transferring from one member school to another shall be ruled ineligible for one calendar year from the date of enrollment because of 'undue influence' if: a student transfers to a new school within one calendar year of the relocation of his/her coach, including non faculty, to that school."

As explanation for why she considered this rule applying, Grant wrote:

"Head football coach Jesse Turner & Assistant Football Coach Jamal Nixon both resigned as coaches at Ellender on 2/6/23 & 2/13/23," she wrote, August 14, 2023. "There was a newspaper article stating that they both had accepted a job at Covenant Christian Academy and this article came out on February 7, 2023. Jaden dropped from Ellender on March 6, 2023 and enrolled at CCA."

The LHSAA is not bound by the opinion of the principal. The association can conduct its own investigations and come to its own conclusion. It chose to side with Grant. It then reaffirmed its ruling during the appeals process in September.

The Houma Courier reached out to LHSAA three times, and during a phone conversation with Grant, she said the association said it was preparing a statement for the paper, identifying the reporter by name. As of the writing of this story, no response was received.

During the appeals process, Covenant Christian Assistant Principal Troy Jackson argued that the ruling cited should not apply to the children because of the particular facts surrounding their living situations. The parents were going through a divorce, and the Carter's father worked 14-and-7 hitch-work offshore. Because of this, the children were to live with their mother at her home in the Covenant Christian school zone.

"Ms. McGuin’s new residence is located on the other side of town, and therefore the transportation to get each of the children across town would be an impossible burden on what in effect would be a single mother," he argued in his appeals letter, dated Sept. 13, 2023. "It is well documented that children who are forced to go through divorce proceedings suffer emotionally, and the fact that these parents chose to place the children in an environment with additional family was based on the logistics placed before them due to their decision to end the marriage."

Zones determine what areas feed into a school, and Covenant Christian shares its school zone with H. L. Bourgeois.

In his appeals letter, Jackson acknowledged that the coach is their uncle and is employed by the school but said that had nothing to do with the mother's decision to move the Carters. He then argued that these rules are not being applied equally by citing another child with similar circumstances.

As evidence of this, Jackson refers to the other teenager whom Grant found eligible. That child began at Covenant Christian Academy on Aug. 8. According to documents obtained by the Houma Courier/Thibodaux Daily Comet dated Aug. 23, Grant did not cite any rule issue affecting his eligibility.

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When asked about the difference in this opinion, she said their situations were "not the same," and that initially she thought this third teen would be ineligible, but determined that because the teenager began the school year in Covenant Christian Academy's zone, transferred into Ellender, and then back, the rule did not apply to him.

He had to move because of a custody ruling by a Houma judge.

In Grant's questionnaire regarding the Carters, she mentioned the two moving between two living addresses, but unlike the third teen, she did not cite specific addresses. When asked if either of the Carter's living addresses were within Covenant Christian Academy's zone, she said she didn't know.

In his appeals letter, Jackson continued his argument that a different rule should apply to the Carters because there is a section titled "Custody When Parents Live Separate and Apart" that says the prior rule does not account for custody issues.

"As it stands, we believe the LHSAA now has two rules in direct conflict with one another," he said. "The rules were written in a manner that assumed absolutes; however, the issues presented in this matter have not been taken into consideration regarding its application on student athletes."

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Divorce forces children to move, now unable to compete in sports