Bumping into walls

Erin enjoyed Volleyball this fall,

it was her first time ever playing it seriously.

She had done a little playing with the family.

She did well and some of her teammates where so helpful to her

a couple of them knew basic signs.

Even though her team didn't win a lot of games, it was still fun to watched and most of the time Erin enjoyed herself with the game.

Erin was told about JO Volleyball in the middle of the season and said she would like to tryout for it.  Her older (a couple of months) cousin has played on JO Volleyball for a long time and told us it a good experience and it very time consuming with tournaments most weekends with practices during the week.  Erin was up to it, and understood that kids will be hearing and most likely she will be the only deaf person on the team.  She was ok with all of this and we assumed an interpreter would be provided.

A couple of weeks ago, I emailed the coach to make sure there would be an interpreter there for her on Sunday when she tries out and if she makes the team, there would be one.

I soon discovered that I was going to be bumping walls.  With discussing with the JO VB coach and the Head organizer, it was determined that ultimately it would be the JO VB sponsor team that should pay for the interpreter.  The head coach wants to help.  I was up front with both the JO VB and head organizer that I would not involve the ADA.  As much as I want Erin to be able to play JO VB, the big picture is if I make JO VB pay for interpreter, they only way they will be able to afford it (as it is an independent organization), they would have to increase the price for each player a large amount and it not fair to do that to all the players.  Erin had told me a couple weeks ago before this all came up, if she didn't make the JO VB team, that she wants to stay after school at her deaf school M-TH and join their student life program.

As I reached out to many different people, some people told me that I shouldn't worry about the money, that it isn't my responsibly to worry about it, that it is the law to provide one.  I understand that, and I will make sure she has one in certain situations like her regular HS VB this fall or any other activities that she does with the hearing school.  In this situation, many other kids would be affected and it isn't a major important thing to Erin, it was something she would like to do.  I had one person (thank you Beth), that really tried to help out and gave me some good leads which I am going to follow up on, so I am more prepared the next time this arises.

I leave this decision up to Erin and God and pray that the decision will be made in the best interest of all parties involved.