Five OKC metro private schools file lawsuit against OSSAA for 'unconstitutional' rule

OKLAHOMA City (KFOR) - All eyes are on Oklahoma high school sports this week, but now, those gazes turn toward district court.

A lawsuit against the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) was filed by five Oklahoma City metro private schools on Thursday. They claim Rule 14 is unconstitutional and should be reviewed again. 

This news comes just after the OSSAA Board of Directors voted this week to allow high school student athletes one free transfer. 

In simple terms, OSSAA’s Rule 14 says high school teams must move up in their sport division if they continue to succeed and meet a certain standard, no matter the size of the school. The private schools argue public schools would never qualify.  

“So Rule 14 was written so that public schools would not qualify under those standards, but private schools would,” said David Morton, President and Principal of Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School. 

Bishop McGuinness, Mount St. Mary, Heritage Hall, Crossings Christian and Oklahoma Christian School are the five metro private schools suing the OSSAA over Rule 14. They argue there needs to be changes made to the writing. 

“But then to look at the most recent changes and what effect those have on kids and their ability to kind of play on a level playing field,” said Morton. 

David Morton, President and Principal of Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School, says currently, if a private school’s sports team dominates their division, they are forced to move up to a higher division.  

“There is a distinct competitive disadvantage,” said Morton. 

Morton says they are specifically highlighting concerns with recent rule changes that can now push teams as high as 6A, which teams could be essentially competing at the highest level. 

“5A schools like us and Bishop Kelly would be subject to having to go into 6A with continued success,” said Morton.  

Morton also argues the 6A cap could also put small private schools like Bishop McGuinness with only 700 students against large schools that may be three, four or five times their size. 

"You may have a whole other group of kids that come in that aren't as talented, aren't physically capable of playing at that level,” said Morton. 

However, radio sports personality, Jerry Ramsey, says those large public schools could still be at a disadvantage because they may not have the same access to resources like small private schools have.  

Ramsey says the OSSAA also needs to go to bat for public schools who have fixed budgets.  

“Facilities and resources are everything and so the private schools, obviously, they're private institutions. They're going to have better resources and facilities than these public schools. It's just a fact,” said Ramsey.  

Morton also says they are highlighting issues within the guidelines of Rule 14. They are arguing against what they call “the coupling rule” which says in some sports, boys and girls would have to move up divisions together. 

“We have great concerns with the coupling rule... Let's say that your boys team has success in soccer that would cause them to move up a class division and let's say the girls team had no success at all. Well, regardless of their success level, they're coupled with boys, soccer. They would move together,” said Morton. 

Court documents also argue rules and regulations are “solely based upon the desires of a majority of the board of directors many of which are biased against private schools.” 

Earlier this year, Attorney General Gentner Drummond sent the OSSAA a cease-and-desist letter shutting down the board after there was talk of making a separate postseason playoff bracket for private schools. 

“They wanted to put the private schools in their own classification,” said Morton. 

That’s when the OSSAA came back with another version of rule 14. 

“Would we be willing to sit at the table and talk about maybe something different? Certainly,” said Morton.  

Now, the private schools involved in the lawsuit are asking the OSSAA to pay for lawyer fees, court costs and are requesting to rewrite Rule 14.  

KFOR reached out to the OSSAA on Friday morning for a comment, but we have not heard back from them.  

KFOR also reached out to the four other private schools involved in the lawsuit. They have not gotten back to us.  

We also reached out to the Attorney General’s Office, but we were also not given a response.  

KFOR wanted to hear from rural public-school districts to hear their thoughts on the lawsuit, but we also did not hear back from the several we reached out to.