A Tualatin father named Alex Bogardus recently took to a Facebook page, “The People of Tualatin,” to pour out his heart about something that happened to his son, Matthew Bogardus.
Alex started the post straight and bold, “This is something the parents of Tualatin kids in sports need to know about, if they don’t already.“
His 8-year-old son, Matthew Bogardus, who played baseball and football through the Tualatin youth programs, was excited to jump into basketball this season.
Nonetheless, instead of fun on the court, it turned into a nightmare of discrimination that no child should ever face.
It all started back in Matthew’s first year at Byrom Elementary School when a kid in his class picked on him and bullied him.
Alex revealed the bullying wore his son so much that he’d beg through tears not to go to school each morning.
If not, the little boy even talked about not wanting to be here anymore and said he wanted to end his own life.
“He even mentioned not wanting to be alive and wanting to kill himself,” Alex wrote.
Undoubtedly, those words hit like a punch to the gut for any parent.
The father of the bully did nothing to stop it. If not, even worse, the father of the bully turned out to be a baseball coach for one of the other teams in the Tualatin league.
Alex figured it was his job, as a grown-up and one in charge of kids on the field, to teach his own son better. But nothing changed.
The breaking point came during a baseball game when the bullying spilled right out in the open, with the boy picking on Alex’s son in front of everyone.
Alex pulled the dad aside and spoke up firmly. Since then, the bullying had stopped between the boys; however, not long enough.
The father of the bully and a handful of others, who are all part of the youth sports scene, started in on Alex instead.
Alex also revealed the latest incident when he tried signing his son Matthew up for basketball, but wasn’t able to.
He shared screenshots of the emails, garbled error messages, and registration forms that wouldn’t go through in his Facebook post.
To test if it was just bad luck, Alex and his wife, Kaitlin, had their close friend, Amarah Robinson, try registering forms for her son.
Amarah emailed Evan Johnson, VP of Youth Rec, Tualatin Youth Basketball Association, stating she had just moved to Tualatin and wanted her son to enroll in basketball.
It turns out that, without any obstacles, Amarah’s son got registered.
And when she mentioned Evan to her friend, Alex, who wanted to enroll his son too, Evan emailed back, stating:
It was open for two months and closed a week ago. I looked to see if we had a spot for your son, and we do have one for your player. We cannot open general registraton for multiple players and overload teams
Evan Johnson
When Alex messaged Evan over email about getting his boy signed up, Evan shot back with this:
Our president forwarded your email to us. This website says that High School Rec registration is open. Youth Rec was closed on October 27th after nearly two months of being open. Teams have been formed, and jerseys have been made.
Evan Johnson
Then Amarah reached out to Evans, writing:
Please explain to me how you’re able to allow my son to be part of the team but not Matthew? They’re the same age, same grade and same school.
Amarah
She didn’t hold back but went bold:
Is this a personal thing against Matthew and his family? His father to be specific?
Amarah
It’s like the system was rigged to keep certain kids out. Finally, Alex reached out to the league president, and the guy called back late one night.
Alex described it as a heated back-and-forth, with the president insisting it was all a mix-up, tripping over his own explanations and getting flustered until he just hung up. Since then, no follow-up emails have been answered.
However, he is no longer holding back on this. “Something needs to be done about the politics in kids’ sports. These coaches and board members want to abuse their power and take away from it being about the kids having fun.” he wrote.
Alex ended the post with a strong determination not to back off writing, “ It’s unacceptable!”
