To the shock of many, two swimmers with disabilities were cut from the Madison West High School girl’s swim team, alongside other swimmers, citing that they made the team less safe and competitive.
Asha Shukla, a senior with Down Syndrome at West, was one of the cut swimmers. She has been on the team since her sophomore year. Asha had swam as an exhibition swimmer, meaning that when she swims for West, she does not score for the team. Despite this, Asha has earned records at schools and even at all-city swim meets. Her family was told that due to the high number of students who had expressed interest in the team, Asha would have to participate in the same tryouts as the rest of the students, unlike past years. Asha’s parents stated that she simply would not be able to go through the same process as the rest of the team.
Aurelia Bergstrom is in her freshman year at West, and had been promised a spot on the swim team. She has looked up to Asha and anticipated being on the team for years, according to her sister. Aurelia’s dad, Charlie Bergstrom, said “my daughter, who had been promised team membership… she really viewed that as part of her identity”.
These cuts led to lots of backlash against the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD), as well as support for Asha and Aurelia. Many posted on Facebook and other social media platforms, showing their support for the swimmers with the phrase “let them swim.”
Quite a few of these supporters went to the MMSD School Board meeting on Monday, September 8th, to which people had been urged to attend to show their solidarity. Some spoke about how they or their children had experienced community and inclusion on the team, and how that had been abruptly interrupted by the cuts of Asha and Aurelia.
A number of the other swimmers who had been cut spoke at the meeting as well. One said that she had only found out about the cut from a post on Sports U, and had received no information nor communications from athletic staff about her removal from the team.
Soon after the meeting, MMSD sent out a letter to the West community, saying that they had communicated with involved families to sort out the matter, and apologized for the impacts made by their decisions. The letter was signed by the principal of West, Daniel Kigeya, the athletic director and assistant athletic director of West and the district athletic director, Jeremy Schlitz.
