Three high school hockey players in Maine won't be playing the sport they love this season, after a judge ruled that the Maine Principals Association hadn't discriminated against the boys by denying their request to play for the Portland (Maine) High School hockey team.
As Prep Rally reported less than a week ago, two players at Deering (Maine) High -- as well as another from Casco Bay (Maine) High -- were forced to consider life without high school hockey, after the team only fielded 5 players for the season, forcing the school to dissolve the team.
Without a high school team to play on, the players asked to be placed on the Portland team instead; it was a move that didn't seem like an over-the-top request. But the Maine Principals Association claimed the move wasn't fair to other schools, and that the players wouldn't be allowed to play for Portland.
As reported by The Forester and ABC affiliate WBLZ, Deering girl players were allowed to play on Portland's new girls' team, which seemed to be a big point of contention when the boys sued the MPA for discrimiation.
"If these boys were girls they'd be playing hockey right now", Paul Greene, who represented the boys in court, told WBLZ.
But despite the obvious double-standard, the judge still ruled against them, noting that allowing the boys to play at Portland would have given the school an unfair advantage over other teams that weren't allowed to pick and choose the top players for one team.
Following the ruling, The Forester reported that the boys wouldn't be filing an appeal, despite the fact that all hockey players will now be playing at Portland after the Deering team was dissolved.
"They've all but ensured there will never be a Deering team again, because all the hockey players will just go to Portland," Greene told The Forester.
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