Volleyball player's parents allege racism, bullying at SFIS

Sep. 24—Parents of a Santa Fe High volleyball player who is prohibited from competing on the varsity level this year have filed a request for a temporary restraining order against the New Mexico Activities Association, claiming it failed to take into account allegations of racism and bullying that prompted the girl to transfer from Santa Fe Indian School this year.

Tina Harte and Chris Geissinger, parents of Angelina Geissinger, applied for a temporary restraining order with the First Judicial District Court on Sept. 6 after the NMAA declared their daughter ineligible to play volleyball at the varsity level for Santa Fe High and denied her appeals for a hardship waiver. The NMAA oversees high school sports in the state.

The parents claim Angelina Geissinger faced racist and bullying behavior from Santa Fe Indian School students for being "a light-skinned, blue-eyed Native American," according to the request.

Santa Fe Public Schools athletic director Marc Ducharme said Angelina Geissinger, a junior, is playing on Santa Fe High's junior varsity for 2022.

According to the document, the parents alleged their daughter faced "various instances of bullying, harassment, intimidation and racial discrimination from students and faculty" while attending SFIS from 2018-2021, which affected her mental, emotional and physical health.

They also asserted in their request she was blocked from leaving a bathroom by Santa Fe Indian School sub-varsity players while the team competed in the state volleyball tournament in Rio Rancho last November. According to the document, the incident led her to tell her parents, "I'm done. I can't do it any more."

Harte declined to comment, while Chris Geissinger said he was fighting for more than just her daughter's desire to play varsity. He said transfer rules need to be changed to be fair to all students. He also declined to comment about the details of his daughter's experience at SFIS since Harte works at the school.

"I'm fighting for all the kids who are getting screwed over," Chris Geissinger said. "The NMAA makes a lot of decisions based on a book they've had since 1921 and they just rubber-stamp stuff. They're messing kids up right now. I mean, how much blood has to be drawn for things change?"

Kimball Sekaquaptewa, SFIS public information officer, wrote in an email the school is prohibited from disclosing information on specific incidents or students, but takes bullying allegations on its campus "very seriously." She added the school has policies and procedures in place to deal with those incidents.

NMAA Associate Director Dusty Young said the organization does not comment on legal matters.

Angelina Geissinger played at the varsity level at SFIS as an eighth-grader and a sophomore. As a freshman, she was a member of the junior varsity and varsity teams at Santa Fe High when SFIS did not field athletic teams for the shortened 2021 season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The NMAA allowed athletes from schools that did not participate in a sport that spring to compete at a public school, provided they lived in that school's district.

In a letter Angelina Geissinger wrote to the NMAA in support of her hardship waiver appeal, she said she experienced "near-constant racism and bullying" for being a "light-skinned, blue-eyed Native American." She added she used volleyball as an outlet to "get away from all the negative thoughts that were put in my head by my fellow classmates." She wrote the experience improved her mental, emotional and physical health and taught her the benefits of teamwork and cooperation.

Her letter also stated she had a great experience playing at Santa Fe High, but opted to return to SFIS "in the hopes things would improve."

"I cannot change the way I look," Angelina Geissinger wrote, "and I have come to realize that some of my classmates will continue to harass me because of it."

The restraining order request argued the NMAA's use of Bylaw 6.6.2(E) to determine Geissinger's eligibility is capricious and arbitrary. The bylaw states a student in good standing with the previous school is ineligible to play for 180 school days.

The document stated the NMAA sent a letter to the Geissinger's parents on March 1, declaring the organization determined a hardship did not exist. Subsequent appeals to the NMAA Board of Directors and the Public Education Department upheld the initial ruling.

The NMAA filed a notice of opposition to the restraining order request Sept. 8, but the case was reassigned to Judge Bryan Biedscheid when Francis J. Mathew recused himself Sept. 9. No hearing date had been filed as of Friday.