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."
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If you have never seen it, it is pretty funny!
“Can someone have a baby and a year later run competitively?”
Certainly they can, it’s called the 15 yard sprint to change the whining kids diaper! Or the ever popular dual sink load of dish washing!
Not to be left out in the triathlon of motherly duties is the clothes folding/ironing while following the nonsense in America known as OPRAH. (numb-skull opera)
Sure, they can compete after childbirth!!!
Run you welfare supported mothers, run!!!!
Yes, she shouldn't have put herself into that position. She had a commitment to the school and she didn't fulfill it. I'm glad she didn't have an abortion, but she made her choice to become pregnant, and she has to live with the consequences.
Because the point is not that they had sex, the point is that they are not in a condition to participate in the sport. I’m surprised I had to explain that to anyone on FR.
susie
Bingo, we have a winner.
Firstly, Former Fetus, thanks for posting this article. Your point about these rules triggering abortions is well made and should be taken into consideration by potential student athletes as well as the appropriate rule making bodies.
Now for the rant.
< vent >
Yeah, OK, she’s going to lose her scholarship just as her contract laid out—a contract she freely signed. Fine, that’s reasonable.
Them’s the rules.
What I don’t get is why so many of you have to be a lot of self-righteous holier-than-thou SOB’s about it.
Liek, OMG, she had SEX, that HUSSY!
There’s really no need to impress the rest of the internet with your opinion of her virtuosity. I don’t see why it’s necessary. Maybe throwing off on people like her lets you elevate yourselves in your own minds. Regardless of the motive, this sort of asinine behavior is just what puts some people off of conservatism in the first place.
Please feel free to knock it off at any time.
Sheesh.
< /vent >
My grandfather had a basketball scholarship at Duke and blew out his knee in his freshman year. They pulled his scholarship.
Hmmm. Gotta watch that word choice. "Virtue" would indicate whether or not the young lady in question had sex. "Virtuosity" would be more appropriate to a discussion of how good she was at it. =]
I see what you did there. ^_^
Oh you can’t get a loan to finish school now like the rest of us do? Gimme a break I’m so sick of hearing about these poor kids losing their beloved scholarships. What a shame to actually have to pay for an education.
No it doesn't. Getting pregnant when it is contrary to your best interests promotes abortion. More accurately, not dealing responsibly with the pregnancy after it happens is what leads to abortion. No one is forcing these women to get abortions any more than they are forcing them to get pregnant.
Everything we do requires choices and committments. That is what life is all about. You don't *have* to do anything.
And the rule is not a statement of morals or an enforcement of morals. The school is paying them to be competitive athletes. If you can't compete, why should you get paid? That's what athletic scholarships are, payment for doing a job. Wrap it in all of the ribbons you like, but that's what it is, a job.
Exactly, she got paid to jump. Hard to do when preggers from being jumped on.
I think the last stat I read was that around 60% off all live births were a result of an accidental pregnancy. Somehow, I do not think these women wanted to be pregnant.
Good point. I wonder how it happened.
Publishing and promoting this kind of story only encourages pregnant female athletes to abort their unborn babies. These colleges want to take advantage of their “investment”.
I believe it's the other way around. She betrayed them!
No, you should have lived up to the document you signed.
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