Girls High School Basketball Team Denied Trip to Arizona

The Highland Park High School Varsity Girls Basketball Team is being denied an opportunity to play in a tournament taking place in Arizona.

Players at the suburban Chicago high school had been raising money for months through bake sales to finance this trip. All their efforts are now in vain. And for what?

School officials cited safety concerns. But students and parents believe it is little more than a misguided protest against Arizona's new immigration law. A local school official states the trip to Arizona "would not be aligned" with the school's "beliefs and values. I liked the observation of one parent in particular:

The school has sent children to China, they’ve sent children to South America, they’ve sent children to the Czech Republic, but somehow Arizona is more unsafe for them than those places. The beliefs and values of China are apparently aligned since they approved that trip.

This decision will not hurt Arizona in any way, shape or form. Life will go on. The only people this decision hurts is the members of the Highland Park High School Varsity Girls Basketball Team. Why punish them for the hard work they've put in both on the court and off of it?