Sidelines

According to the Pacific Northwest Football Officials Association’s Website, the group has filed a lawsuit against the Washington Officials Association and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association over a group of 143 football officials using pink whistles last fall as a benefit for breast cancer awareness.

The officials were recently punished by the WOA. Here is the Mirror’s story from last week regarding the punishment.

Details of the lawsuit have been posted on the PNFOA’s Website. Here is the complete press release issued by Jeff Mattson, the association’s president:

Today, the Pacific Northwest Football Officials Association (PNFOA) filed a lawsuit against the Washington Officials Association (WOA) and Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA).
On May 2, 2011, the WOA disciplined the PNFOA for wearing pink whistles with their uniforms during October 2010 as part of a fundraiser and awareness event for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an organization that advocates for breast cancer treatment and research.
The WOA changed the rules in the middle of the game. None of the WOA rules in place at the time of the “pink whistles” event regulated whistle color or what charities the PNFOA could support. Nothing in the WOA Constitution or Bylaws said the WOA could control members’ community events. And nothing in the WOA Constitution or Bylaws gave WOA Commissioner Todd Stordahl the power to create new rules at all. But three weeks after the PNFOA officials had started wearing pink whistles, and three days before the final “Give Back” weekend when PNFOA officials would donate their pay to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Mr. Stordahl created a new rule that pink whistles violated the officials’ uniform code.
The May 2, 2011 discipline by the WOA included probation for the PNFOA for an alleged “uniform code” violation, stripping the PNFOA of most playoff officiating spots for not obeying Mr. Stordahl’s last-minute “rule,” and an additional year of probation for PNFOA because the PNFOA refused to give a one-year suspension to every member who had talked to the press or commented on a blog during the October, 2010 “pink whistles” event.
The WIAA organizes interscholastic athletic competitions for over 800 middle and high schools in Washington state—the vast majority of all public and private schools. The WOA has an exclusive agreement with the WIAA. To officiate at WIAA games, officials must be members of the WOA. The two organizations have a monopoly on school sports officiating in Washington State. Thus, the PNFOA officials are faced with a difficult decision: they can submit to the irrational and arbitrary decisions of the WOA; they can stop officiating (thereby harming the schools and students that they serve); or they can attempt to change the situation. This suit is the PNFOA’s attempt to change the situation.
The suit seeks: (1) to enjoin and prohibit infringements on PNFOA officials’ First Amendment rights of free speech and free association; (2) to prohibit the WOA and WIAA from violating their own rules, Constitution, and Bylaws; and (3) to allow freedom to contract among all officials statewide and to prohibit the unlawful monopoly arrangements between the WOA and the WIAA, thereby giving officials and schools a choice.
The men and women of the PNFOA officiate secondary-school sports out of a desire to give back—to make sure that students today have the same opportunities they had growing up. Giving back to the community is equally important. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure event was not the first time PNFOA officials donated their paychecks. Every year the PFNOA gives at least one $500 sportsmanship scholarship to a high school athlete. In 2009, the organization donated $3800 to the family of slain police officer Timothy Brenton.

Jeff Mattson
PNFOA President