NEWS / Clerical error on birth certificate prevents Arizona teen from joining school’s male basketball team

A 14-year-old teenager in Mesa, Arizona, was not allowed to join the male basketball team at Eastmark High School due to a clerical error on his birth certificate that incorrectly listed his sex as “female”.

8th grader Laker Jackson told AZFamily that he likes to play team sports, including basketball, wrestling, and football. He noted that he won a basketball conference championship for his weight class. However, when his mother presented the aspiring basketball player’s birth certificate, the school took note of a problem.

“I give him the birth certificate and they’re like, did you know this says female,” Laker’s mother Becky Jackson stated.

The seemingly minor clerical error did not cause any major issues until Laker decided to join the high school’s basketball team. According to the boy’s mother, her son was “physically” removed from the basketball tryouts in front of his friends and coach by the school’s athletic director.

It is worth noting that the birth certificate did get corrected and the boy’s parents submitted the corrected birth certificate, along with a note from a doctor, to the school, but the school issued a statement stipulating that they rely on a student’s original birth certificate to determine athletic eligibility. The school also stated that getting a chromosome analysis could be “support” or “verify” eligibility in accordance with policy.

The issue is that chromosomal testing can be very expensive and there is no guarantee that the school would change its absurd determination about the boy’s eligibility to join the boys' basketball team.

If you need to retrieve a certified copy of your birth certificate or to get US-issued vital records apostilled or authenticated for use abroad, please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail at info@apostille.us or by phone at (212) 233-7061. You can also place an order on our website.