A teenager’s nightmare

IN the midst of a legal battle over his right to play basketball, 15-year-old Scott Aying is going through an emotional roller coaster.

He was suited up, and shooting baskets Wednesday night when a court sheriff went to the Cebu Coliseum to serve a court order directing sports organizers to allow him to play.

Scott’s mother was “very jubilant” as well over the Temporary Restraining Order, only to be disappointed again when her son was still not allowed to play, said the family lawyer Donato Gonzales.

“After the games were cancelled Wednesday night, he (Scott) has not ben talking. He’s now practicing with his teammates for their games tomorrow (Sept. 20),” said the lawyer.

“Aying asked his mother last night ‘Dili gyud ko nila paduwaon, ma? (Did they really refuse to let me play?)’ and the mother responded “We will just pray,” he added.

In their petition filed in court, parents described the experience of their son, who was disqualified from playing because of a two-year residency rule which they contest, as “child abuse.”

The coach received the written notice a day before the opening of the basketball tournament. Last-minute appeals were made by his school.

In the afternoon of Aug. 3, the opening games of the basketball league, Coach Reroma called Scott to play during the second quarter.

“To the shock of the spectators in the jampacked gymnasium, the Cesafi Commissioner, respondent Felix O. Tiukinhoy Jr. stood up from his seat across the other side of the court, went to the side where USC-BED’s team are and declared: “If you let that play, your game will be forfeited!”

According to the complaint, Scott who was at the center of the court “shamefully walked towards the side and returned to his seat beside his teammates and started crying.”

The parents said that after their son was “humiliated in public, he was bullied by most of his peers” and lost interest in his studies. Scott would lock himself in his room and refused to talk.

The petition seeking court relief opens with a quote from Dr. Leonard Shengold of the American Psychological Association: “To abuse or neglect a child, to deprive the child of a separate identity and joy in life, is to commit SOUL MURDER…”

It said the Cesafi’s conduct violated Republic Act 7610 which defines child abuse as “maltreatment of the child”, which can include “any act by deeds or words which debrases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of a child as a human being.”

It also covers “psychological abuse” and emotional maltreatment.

For this trauma, the parents asked the court to order Cesafi respondents to pay P50,000 in moral damages. /Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol