This high schooler will be allowed to race at cross country regionals in his wheelchair — with a few caveats
"They’re selling every athlete on that course short."
Jonathan Schomaker, a wheelchair-using, 15-year-old cross county athlete from Maine, will be allowed to compete at this year’s regionals — with a few restrictions.
The Leavitt Area High School sophomore has been fighting for this right since last year, when he was barred from competing at regionals because his chair, which he is forced to use because of his pontocerebellar hypoplasia, was thought to pose a safety hazard to other runners.
The Maine Principals’ Association, the organization Jonathan’s parents have been working to convince to allow their son to compete, announced Thursday that Jonathan will have two options to participate in the October 26 race. The Schomakers are not impressed with the options.
Jonathan’s decision is to either compete in a separate wheelchair division, which would offer the potential to advance to regional and state championships, or to complete an “exhibition race” by himself.
The Sun Journal obtained a letter from the MPA to Jonathan’s principal, which clarifies what those options mean.
The letter indicates if Jonathan chose the first option, he would be given three choices of shorter, modified courses to race. He would have the opportunity to win a medal and his participation would earn him records for future wheelchair races. This option would lead to the creation of a wheelchair division.
If he chose the second option, he would be allowed to race alongside his team. However, he would not count as a member of the team and wouldn’t have a chance to qualify for the next meet. No wheelchair division would be created.
“Both of these options are not good,” Jonathan’s father, Jon Schomaker said Friday.
The idea that Jonathan shouldn’t race with other runners is based in safety concerns, according to the MPA.
“We all agreed that the safety concerns were too great to meet an initial request that he race with the entire complement of runners,” said Michael Burnham, executive director of the interscholastic division of the MPA, in a statement.
Jon said Jonathan has never tripped another runner or caused a safety problem, but that excuse gives the MPA leverage to keep him from competing with his team.
“They’re always going to back him into a corner with all the safety concerns, which are a non-issue,” Jon said. “They don’t exist.”
The MPA disagrees. “It was determined that having him on the course, as it is built, and alongside more than 100 other runners would be unsafe both to him and the other runners,” the organization said in a Thursday press release.
Jon said he and Jonathan did a run-though of the regionals course and It looked less rough than the course at Jonathan’s school, on which he races regularly.
“They’re selling every athlete on that course short because they’re acting like ‘We have to protect all you children from this evil child in a wheelchair because you’re not intelligent enough to go around him,’” Jon said.
Jon said the MPA expects a decision on which option Jonathan will take by Friday evening, but he thinks that’s too quick of a turnaround.
He’s hoping Jonathan will be allowed to race alongside his team and that a wheelchair division will be created so he will be treated as a member of the team.
Jon said Jonathan is frustrated with the options the MPA presented him.
“His goal, first and foremost, is he wants to run with his team,” Jon said. “But at this point, he’s also aware of establishing the wheelchair division so that there’s some sort of legacy there — a foot in the door for future wheeled athletes to be able to race and not have to go through all of this.”
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