Blue Valley school board member suspends sports but sends son to play in Florida. Fair?
A Blue Valley school board member is at the center of a raging controversy for voting to suspend the district’s fall sports due to COVID-19 — after sending her own son to play at an elite sports academy in Florida.
It looks awful, plain and simple.
Stacy Obringer-Varhall, who is also a candidate for the Johnson County Board of Commissioners in the November election, is being denounced as a hypocrite and an elitist across social media. And at least one former county commission rival candidate, Pam Shernuk, has acknowledged second-guessing her Aug. 4 primary election-night endorsement of Obringer-Varhall.
‘Let them play’ rally amid inflamed emotions
Tensions were already running high in Blue Valley after Obringer-Varhall and her school board colleagues decided Aug. 21 to begin the school year with virtual learning for middle- and high-schoolers and suspend fall sports. Indeed, 100 or more angry parents and athletes decried the shutdown of football and other fall sports at a “let them play” rally at district headquarters Thursday.
Emotions only became more inflamed with the revelation that Obringer-Varhall and her husband sent their son, a high school senior and a football player, to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, which bills itself as “the world’s most prestigious sports, performance and educational institution.”
It probably didn’t help, either, that Obringer-Varhall’s initial response to the social media firestorm was a defiant “my personal decisions are just that — personal.” Sorry, but that’s right out of the “let them eat cake” playbook.
Of course, one’s personal decisions are personal — except, that is, when you’re an elected official. Obringer-Varhall is leaving one political office in search of another. Surely she knows by now that the microscope follows.
But let’s look beyond even the microscopic optics.
Football is serious business to many
No one wants football more than I do. After growing up a Kansas City Chiefs fan, I spent a number of years in the heart of the Southeastern Conference. I like to joke that in SEC country, playing football even during a pandemic is something of a religious liberty issue.
But coronavirus flare-ups are hitting high school and college sports programs every day. Just prior to the district suspending all sports, Blue Valley West High School’s entire football program was in quarantine.
Whether or not I buy the “gating” criteria on COVID-19 cases that’s used to shut things down, I respect local leaders’ considered decisions in such matters. The Blue Valley school board’s vote was unanimous. That says something in itself.
I don’t blame angry parents who believe otherwise for scorching the district on social media or at rallies. But neither do I begrudge parents like the Varhalls for doing what they feel is best for their own children. If I had a kid who was 6 feet 8 inches tall and 325 pounds, I’d either find the money to send him to IMG or ask Sandra Bullock to adopt him.
And in this case, it’s worth noting that Obringer-Varhall’s son said a fond farewell to his Blue Valley Northwest friends in June — before the current spike in cases here and long before the board of education’s August decision to suspend things.
Obringer-Varhall did not know in June that her son would be playing and his friends here would not. There goes the hypocrisy charge.
“At that time Johnson County was in the ‘green,’ and there was no reason to believe that local schools would face such a drastic increase of cases the next two months,” she confirmed in an email.
Obringer-Varhall had better options
Had she shipped her son out to play elsewhere knowing she and her colleagues would be shutting down play here at home, that would be a different story — a juicy one worthy of the online outrage. But that just isn’t what happened. The timeline is proof.
Sad to say, Obringer-Varhall hasn’t done herself any favors on the public relations front. Knowing her son had gone out of state to play and perhaps improve his scholarship chances, she should have said so before the vote that suspended play here. Better yet, she could have recused herself.
Not doing so has undoubtedly cost her invaluable support in the county commission race — including Shernuk’s prior endorsement, which was retracted as I wrote this sentence.
“After having an opportunity to visit with Stacy about the news that has unfolded this past week, I have decided to rescind my endorsement of her for the race for Johnson County Commission,” Shernuk said in an email. “I know Stacy did what she thought was right for her son and her family, but I campaigned on transparency in government, and the fact that she kept this decision from the voters until after the primary signals to me that she knew this might be an issue.”
While choosing not to endorse the other remaining commission candidate, Charlotte O’Hara, Shernuk adds, “I hope the public will give (Obringer-Varhall’s) son the privacy he deserves, while still holding her accountable for her actions.”
Absolutely. But at least be aware of exactly what those actions were. Hypocritical? No. Elitist? Maybe a little.
Then again, I’ve never bought the notion that elite is a four-letter word.
