WMTV

Every high school student wants to feel included — but two Madison West families say their daughters are left on the sidelines this year. On Monday, the two families brought their concerns to the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) school board meeting, after they say their students with disabilities were denied a fair chance to stay on the high school’s swim team. One of those students is Asha Shukla, a senior at Madison West. During her sophomore year, she was accepted on the swim team despite living with Down syndrome, according to her parents Tora Frank and Raj Shukla. “She swims with them at meets in exhibition capacity,” Asha’s father Raj said. “She’s not scoring points for the team, but she is there cheering her team on. She is there receiving their love while she’s out there swimming. She’s part of the community in a way she never had been.”

But this year, Tora and Raj learned Asha was cut from the team because of capacity issues. They said the school told them that a large number of students wanted to try out for the team. If Asha wanted to stay on the team, she would have to do the same tryout as the other students without accommodations.