COLUMBIA — Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway announced Tuesday that her office will initiate an investigation into the Missouri State High School Activities Association over an allegation of discrimination.
Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said a whistleblower, who is both white and male, was informed he was not eligible for an at-large position on the MSHSAA Board of Directors because of his race and gender.
“The fact is, the whistleblower was barred from applying for an at-large position because of their race and their gender," Fitzpatrick wrote in a letter to Hanaway's office. "... Missouri students deserve to have the most qualified, most committed individuals working on their behalf rather than the correct mix of genders and ethnicities as prescribed by MSHSAA."
Fitzpatrick formally notified Hanaway's office of the allegations in a letter dated Friday, Nov. 14.
“Missouri does not tolerate race-based or sex-based discrimination, period,” Hanaway said in a Tuesday news release. “No organization that governs our public schools and our children’s activities can operate under an immoral system that tells someone they are the wrong race or the wrong sex for leadership."
Fitzpatrick's office sent a letter dated April 16 to MSHSAA following allegations that a whistleblower was barred from the association's Board of Directors. A packet of correspondences included in a release from Hanaway's office includes a March 18 email to the whistleblower in which MSHSAA said he was not eligible for an at-large position on its board.
In a letter dated April 30, an attorney for Mickes O'Toole, LLC, which represents MSHSAA, responded to Fitzpatrick's letter and requested additional time to respond to his questions. Natalie A. Hoernschemeyer wrote the letter.
MSHSAA has denied the allegation that its action was discriminatory.
"To be clear, MSHSAA does not discriminate, Hoernschemeyer wrote in her April 30 letter to Fitzpatrick's office. "Members of the Board of Directors are selected based on their qualifications, experience, and commitment to the mission of the organization. No individual is excluded from the opportunity to be on the Board of Directors."
MSHSAA is a statewide nonprofit organization that governs sports and activities for more than 700 Missouri junior and senior high schools, impacting over 200,000 students. Its member schools voluntarily choose to affiliate with MSHSAA each year, and member schools vote to adopt the association's constitutional provisions, MSHSAA's attorney wrote in a June 18 letter.
Hoernschemeyer and Fitzpatrick sent correspondences back and forth over the course of several months. The final letter by Hoernschemeyer included in the packet of correspondences released by Hanaway's office is dated Aug. 20.
In her letters, MSHSAA's attorney cited the association's constitution, which requires at-large seats to be filled by a candidate representing “the underrepresented gender … or an underrepresented ethnicity” on the Board of Directors.
The board comprises 10 members. Eight of those members are elected from designated geographic regions, while two of them are at-large members.
"The constitutional language related to at-large board positions is deliberately designed to promote inclusivity while avoiding any form of exclusion or rigid identity-based quotas," MSHSAA's attorney wrote in a letter dated June 18. "It expands access, rather than restricts it."
Fitzpatrick emphasized that the correspondence provided to his office by MSHSAA's attorney shows MSHSAA acknowledged and defended its decision.
“This discrimination is extremely troubling in any setting but is of even greater concern in this case because MSHSAA derives much of its funding from public sources and plays an important role in the extracurricular life of Missouri’s children,” Fitzpatrick said in the news release from the attorney general's office.
But MSHSAA's attorney emphasized that the whistleblower is not blocked from serving on the board in a seat corresponding to his geographic region.
"The individual identified in your correspondence ... was not and is presently not precluded from serving on the MSHSAA Board of Directors," Hoernschemeyer wrote in a letter dated Aug. 20. "Rather, he was unable to run for a particular at-large seat because he did not meet the current qualifications attached to that seat pursuant MSHSAA's Constitution."
MSHSAA's attorney said the man who alleged discrimination is an administrator at a school and would qualify for a seat corresponding to his geographic region.
To report an error or typo, email news@komu.com.
