and make her REPAY all the money spent on her dumb cow azz up to now too!!!
Posted on 05/14/2007 5:26:49 PM PDT by Former Fetus
Cassandra Harding waited nervously, dreading the moment her athlete's body would betray her.
Everyone would know her secret, including her track coaches at the University of Memphis - where she was on a full athletic scholarship.
"I didn't want to talk to anyone about it. I thought, what am I going to do now?" she said. "I didn't want to lose my scholarship."
But she did. And that's exactly what her coaches warned would happen.
Harding said she and other members of the Memphis women's track team were required to sign a document acknowledging they could lose their scholarships if they became pregnant.
The Memphis athletic department refused to discuss scholarship rules.
"The University of Memphis does not believe that it has violated any federal laws in the matter of Cassandra Harding," the school said in a statement.
Harding spoke first to ESPN, which was to include her comments in an Outside the Lines report set for broadcast today. Seven Clemson student-athletes told ESPN they had abortions in recent years, due in part to their fear of losing scholarships.
NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson declined comment on the Memphis case, but he acknowledged yesterday that there are no national guidelines about pregnancy. Christianson said decisions on financial aid and scholarships are made by individual schools.
Christianson added that the NCAA's national office allows pregnant athletes to apply for an extra year of eligibility, which would not count as a redshirt year. That gives some women an opportunity to stay in school for six years while competing for four.
Harding and teammate Gail Lee said Memphis coaches made it clear pregnancy can end an athletic career. Harding, who has rejoined the team since giving birth to a daughter, said the document listed other causes for which scholarships could be lost - including drug or alcohol abuse, or assaulting a coach.
"The track coaches hand that out to you. They like read it over and then tell you to sign it," said Harding, a jumper. "Well, I wasn't really thinking anything about it because I wasn't going to get pregnant."
But she did toward the end of her sophomore year in October 2004, and gave birth to Assiah in July 2005. Harding said she considered having an abortion to avoid losing her scholarship, but decided against it.
"I shouldn't have been put in that position," she said. "I'm so happy I have my baby."
When a new school year began, Memphis declined to renew her scholarship. So Harding borrowed the money to stay in school for her junior year, and worked part-time jobs - as a waitress, and as a package handler at the FedEx terminal in Memphis - while rejoining the track team as a walk-on.
Harding said she went to school during the day, worked at night, went back to class in the morning and practiced with the team when required. Her boyfriend took care of the baby when she was in school or at work.
The university lists her as being red-shirted for the 2005 outdoor season and as having missed the 2006 indoor season.
Now a senior, she has a partial athletic scholarship that pays for tuition and books. She had to sign the document again when she got the partial scholarship.
Her boyfriend is now in the Army, so Assiah is living with Cassandra's mother, Maple Harding, in Killeen, Texas. Cassandra Harding expects to graduate in December with a degree in criminal justice.
Lee, a thrower and one of Memphis's top athletes, said she signed a similar document in August 2005.
"There are guys on our team that have babies. Why wouldn't they have to follow the same rule?" said Lee, who won the shot put and finished second in the hammer throw at the Conference USA outdoor championships this weekend in Houston.
Track coach Kevin Robinson declined to discuss the case.
"Look, we're here to compete, not to become a spectacle," Robinson said Friday. "I'm certainly not in a position to comment for the school. We certainly don't want to be represented in a poor light."
Scholarships come up for renewal yearly, and colleges can decline to renew for an athlete unable to perform for medical reasons unrelated to athletics, said Barbara Osborne, a lawyer and assistant professor of sports law research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"That is an entirely legal thing and within NCAA rules," Osborne said.
But many schools continue scholarships for students temporarily sidelined by accidents, illness or other medical conditions, Osborne said, and some are developing programs to assist pregnant athletes to help them stay in college.
"Refusing to renew scholarships solely because of pregnancy smacks of moralizing," Osborne said, "and to actually have a policy like that and put it in writing seems very 1940s and '50s."
That said, I can understand why a track coach would do his/her utmost to discourage pregnancies among the female athletes. Can someone have a baby and a year later run competitively?
“Can someone have a baby and a year later run competitively?”
I should really resist the temptation to opine on athetics, as I[m the kind of person who can sit inside and smoke cigaretts all day, but I would think that a year after prenancy one certainly could compete. Athletes come back from worse than preganancy all the time.
Except Rothlisberger, I don’t think he is coming back.
Of course they can but ................
members of the Memphis women's track team were required to sign a document acknowledging they could lose their scholarships if they became pregnant.
They know the cost................
Really, the guys are having babies? For a college gal, I think she would have phrased that differently and applied some critically thinking skills
Funny, when a women wants to abort a child, the men are only sperm donors :)
Not only is this rule a Double Standard put it also promotes abortion.
I would agree with that position if the male athletes signed an agreement that stated if they got a girl pregnant they would forfeit their scholarship
Not only is this rule a Double Standard put it also promotes abortion.
If males signed this agreement it might promote homosexuality !
Only a scholarships male athletes can get a female athlete Pregnant-—good logic?
Refusing to recognize that moral issues have practical consequences smacks of stupidity.
I'd say a baby is more important than running track. Do these gals and their lawyers think they should jeopardize the baby and try to run anyway? Or maybe that the team shouldn't cut them even if they don't run as well when "running for two"?
Reality is: Don't fool around with boys if you want to run track. Or, get married, have a baby, and have a life. These choices are not in the least onerous—they're both good, in fact. They just can't be enjoyed simultaneously. Accept this, get off those drugs that make you think that way, and be happy.
Really, the guys are having babies? For a college gal, I think she would have phrased that differently and applied some critically thinking skills
Of course if these guys are really having babies they’d never have to work another day in their lives!
You are kidding-right? Its not about having the baby, it about not being able to compete.
I understand that it would be tough for an woman eight months pregnant to play point guard on a collegiate basketball team. However, if the no pregnancy rule is based on morals then it should cover male athletes as well.
She put herself in that position!
Rules are rules....
This isn't about abortion...
.this is about flaunting the rules and not taking responsibilty.
You are given a scholarship to compete, if you can’t you lose the scholarship, makes sense to me.
Do you really think it’s fair to hold them accountable to their agreement when they accepted the scholarship? Next you’ll say they are accountable for their own actions!
For the woman, pregnancy changes her body and she can no longer compete athletically.
For the man... no changes to his body, can still compete.
I don’t understand your question. It seems quite obvious.
“I wonder why it is that these universities will pull the scholarship of a female athletes that get pregnant but do not yank the scholarships of male athletes who get women pregnant?”
Not being able to compete in the sport you got your scholarship in is the same thing as flunking out of your major on an academic scholarship.
Should his scholarship be yanked?
The school stands no chance in court.
Gosh. Did I miss a Rothlisberger pregnancy??.......j/k
and make her REPAY all the money spent on her dumb cow azz up to now too!!!
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