I have Asperger’s syndrome; therefore I’m not allowed to play netball

Unless it’s because I’m male or something. I certainly seem to have been discriminated against.

In 2019, people made false accusations about me and got me kicked out of a netball club in Stirling.

I tried to find another netball club, but the netball clubs I contacted were all reluctant to tell me anything about themselves, and when I asked further questions about them they just stopped replying or whatever. I also contacted the netball club in Stirling about rejoining, because their constitution says I can ask to rejoin at the next general meeting. They ignored me.

I contacted Netball Scotland, and asked them to investigate why I was being treated the way I was by these 4 netball clubs, and was told they’d investigate it.

I turned up at 1 of the netball clubs (they’d told me they weren’t playing because of the Covid 19 pandemic, and they’d tell me when they started playing again, but never did tell me), and played netball with them anyway. I literally only played there 6 times before they found an excuse to get me suspended by Netball Scotland!

In September 2022, I had the police at my flat, saying that I’d contacted someone at netball saying I need some new friends, and asking me not to contact her again. Then the next day, I got an e-mail saying I’d been suspended from Netball Scotland. They didn’t even say anything about why!

Eventually I found out that the reason I was suspended was, among other things, that I’d allegedly “communicated with a club member, Christina [surname removed by mod], that was uninvited and persistent which placed her in a state of fear and alarm”. I’d sent her 1 message on facebook, she’d replied, and then I replied to her message; and I’d only asked perfectly normal things like “How long have you been playing netball?” and “Where do you live?”

1 of the other reasons for the suspension was that I’d chased Natalie up about her investigation about netball clubs not wanting me to join. I’d supposedly failed to show her respect.

This post’s getting a bit long, so to cut a long story short, I had a hearing in March 2023 about it. And all the complaints against me were upheld, and I’ve been suspended by Netball Scotland for 5 years!

They haven’t answered any of my questions such as “What’s wrong with being friendly?” or “What’s wrong with doing to others what I would have them do to me?” or “What’s wrong with asking Natalie to do her job?”.

What happened at Stirling was brought up to demonstrate a “pattern of behaviour”, but nobody even told me what this pattern of behaviour was. The accusations there were completely different.

I’d put a complaint in about Natalie not having done anything about her investigation. Is this the real reason I’ve been suspended?

Oh 2 other questions that have never been answered are “Would I have had the same reaction to contacting Christina if I was a woman?” and “Would I have had the same reaction to contacting Christina if I didn’t have Asperger’s syndrome?”

So I seem to have been discriminated against.

Parents
  • Basketball =\= netball. The rules are different. Anyway you are assuming there is a basketball team near him.

    also whether they gave him special dispensation to play is irrelevant. If they chose to withdraw that dispensation because of something caused by his autism it might be what we call section 15 discrimination. Any unfavourable treatment, even withdrawing some sort of special treatment previously given, can be a section 15 if it’s motivated by an incident that was caused by a disability.

  • Well it sounds like the final desision to ban him from umbrella organisation was taken in March 2023. So that decision at least is definitely within the six month limit.

    also if his autism wasn’t properly addressed in the first instance in the investigation there is a decent chance he can request that it be re-investigated as a form of a reasonable adjustment for his autism. In which case what you would bring the case about would not be the original investigation but the refusal to re-investigate as a reasonable adjustment which again would be something that would’ve happened quite recently.

    #notlegaladvice

Reply
  • Well it sounds like the final desision to ban him from umbrella organisation was taken in March 2023. So that decision at least is definitely within the six month limit.

    also if his autism wasn’t properly addressed in the first instance in the investigation there is a decent chance he can request that it be re-investigated as a form of a reasonable adjustment for his autism. In which case what you would bring the case about would not be the original investigation but the refusal to re-investigate as a reasonable adjustment which again would be something that would’ve happened quite recently.

    #notlegaladvice

Children
No Data