{"id":114971,"date":"2021-02-01T13:47:33","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T18:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=114971"},"modified":"2021-02-01T14:12:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T19:12:02","slug":"let-us-play-thousands-rally-at-michigan-state-capitol-over-high-school-winter-sports-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/let-us-play-thousands-rally-at-michigan-state-capitol-over-high-school-winter-sports-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Let Us Play\u2019: Thousands Rally At Michigan State Capitol Over High School Winter Sports Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flet-us-play-thousands-rally-at-michigan-state-capitol-over-high-school-winter-sports-ban%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=114971&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Thousands of students, teachers, coaches, school administrators, and others flocked to Lansing, Michigan, on Saturday to protest Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer\u2019s shutdown of high school winter sports.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of people, including many of the athletes themselves, gave speeches from the steps of the Michigan State Capitol calling on the governor and the Michigan Department of Health to lift the ban on winter contact sports, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlive.com\/highschoolsports\/2021\/01\/let-them-play-delivers-clear-message-as-thousands-flock-to-capitol-to-protest-winter-sports-pause.html\">MLive<\/a>. Michigan is one of the only states in the country to prohibit high school athletics because of the coronavirus, despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/education\/cdc-school-virus-spread\/2021\/01\/26\/bf949222-5fe6-11eb-9061-07abcc1f9229_story.html\">research<\/a> showing that spread of the disease in schools with precautions is minimal.<\/p>\n<p>The protest was organized by Let Them Play, a group launched last year by Michigan business owner Jayme McElvany, whose son is a high school athlete. McElvany organized two other protests last year that were each attended by hundreds of students, parents, and school staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were easily 2,000 people here from across the state to show their support and some people from the [Upper Pennisula] drove nine hours just to be here today,\u201d McElvany told MLive. \u201cThe crowd was incredible and the kids who got up and spoke really showcased the emotions that everyone is going through right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like a mom to 60,000 kids right now and I couldn\u2019t be prouder of all of them for continuing to battle for their right to play organized youth sports. I\u2019m fighting for all of them and we are working together to do what is right and let them play again,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Easily 2,000+ people here at the State Capitol for the Let Them Play rally despite 20 degree temperatures <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uqlkbOvSBL\">pic.twitter.com\/uqlkbOvSBL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Josh VanDyke (@JoshVanDykeJAX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JoshVanDykeJAX\/status\/1355576911615975427?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 30, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The push to open up winter sports has gained support from local school administrators and boards, as well. The board of the Gaylord community school district in Otsego County <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=3784347965014185&amp;id=1024143264368016\">passed<\/a> a resolution on Friday calling for the ban on winter sports to be lifted \u201cimmediately.\u201d The administration of Clio Area High School put out an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ClioHighSchool\/posts\/1611782205675521\">open letter<\/a> to state leaders on Friday asking for their students to be allowed to participate in winter sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn behalf of Clio Area Schools we implore you to allow our athletes to participate in winter sports,\u201d Clio administrators wrote. \u201cThis pandemic has been incredibly difficult for everyone, especially our students. Many of us have lost family and friends, and that is, without a doubt, devastating. This pandemic is real and so are our concerns or our students\u2019 mental and physical well being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of the year, winter contact sports were due to start back on February 1. On January 22, Whitmer extended the ban on contact sports by three weeks until at least February 21. The extension was put in place despite a Michigan High School Athletic Association pilot-testing program that found a 99.8% negative COVID test rating among high school athletes.<\/p>\n<p>Let Them Play has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlive.com\/highschoolsports\/2021\/01\/lawsuit-is-ready-but-let-them-play-hopes-weekend-rally-brings-results.html\">prepared<\/a> a lawsuit against the state of Michigan over the winter sports ban, and is prepared to file it this week if the government does not back off its ban.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you can ignore 2,000 kids screaming and begging for you to let them play sports again, that\u2019s unexplainable,\u201d McElvany told MLive.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of students, teachers, coaches, school administrators, and others flocked to Lansing, Michigan, on Saturday to protest Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer\u2019s shutdown of high school winter sports. Dozens of people, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1892384,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4172,4601,4599,4433,3772,4286],"class_list":["post-114971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-capitol","tag-michigan","tag-play","tag-rally","tag-state","tag-thousands"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1892384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}