Support Kayla Cotton to play softball her Senior year after being punished for an incident before sc

We want sincerely thank you for supporting our daughter Kayla Cotton in this petition for her to be able to play softball. 

Thank you

Deanna and Keith Cotton

We believe our daughter should get a fair chance and be treated fairly just like every other student. 

The facts based on this offense are from hearsay instead of written facts.

The school decided after just a couple weeks of school to suspend her from 2 seasons of sports or 180 days.

In our school handbook it clearly states 180 calendar days from the date it happened.  So she should be able to play as of March. We were told no it means school calendar days.

This was her first offense but when I had spoke with the school I was told it was her second.  I had said no she has never been in trouble. They came back with the answer that because they thought this was such a serious incident they chose to make it her second offense. 

Kayla was involved in an incident when school hadn’t started and wasn’t on school grounds. The liaison officer at the time told our school about the incident. There was no report done at that time and hadn’t been till a month later.  But based on what he had said and other people had said to the school they chose to give suspension to Kayla.  There was another kid that was involved in the incident also and they had given him the suspension too.  He had decided to go before the Board of Education and plead his case. At that time it was football season and he was on the team and they decided to let him play.  We didn’t go before the board because we were waiting on a police report stating all of the incident facts.  When the report finally came in we had a lawyer send the school all of the facts and that the charges that were brought up were dropped.  We had letter come back to us stating that they will not overturn their decision to let Kayla play because it had already been decided.  This is where all my concern comes from.  All kids no matter who they are should always get a fair chance and are treated equally.  So many kids in school have had 1st and 2nd and 3rd chances and are still being able to play even though they have had MIP's or other incidents that has happened and my daughter had this one thing happen and her whole senior year has been ruined based on hearsay instead of facts.  We just want to see our daughter end her senior year end happy as I would want that for any other child in school. 

As for the 180 calendar days I don’t agree with it meaning school calendar days and when it was her first offense they decided they could change it based on their opinions to a second offense.  Our kids are suppose to be able to look up to our elders in school and know that they are there for them and to teach them what they need to know and show they care about our kids.  Please help with signing this petition for Kayla to be able to play her last season of high school softball.  Thank you to everyone who has Kayla’s best interest at heart.   

https://www.facebook.com/kaylacottonpetition