Four of the District’s top boys’ basketball players are in danger of not being allowed to play for a city school this season following an investigation into their residency conducted by the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education. The investigation marks the latest development in the city government’s efforts to crack down on non-District residents attending its schools for free.
All-Met Alani Moore and fellow senior LeAndre Thomas, who transferred from former prep basketball powerhouse Montrose Christian to Friendship Collegiate this fall, and Daryl Bones and Justin Milstead of IDEA Public Charter School are not allowed to participate in any athletic activities until the situation is resolved, according to letters obtained by The Washington Post that were sent to their respective schools' administrators Wednesday by the D.C. State Athletic Association.
An OSSE spokesman confirmed that the agency recently notified the families of four student-athletes who enrolled at D.C. public charter schools this year of a non-residency finding after a third-party investigation submitted to the agency’s Office of Enrollment and Residency. Only District residents are allowed to attend D.C. public charter schools tuition-free, and non-residents must pay tuition and can enroll only if there are no District residents on a school’s wait list.
D.C public schools have their own investigative team regarding residency issues.
OSSE “takes residency fraud very seriously and conducts thorough, annual residency reviews as well as investigations into allegations of residency fraud to ensure our students are District residents or tuition-paying nonresidents,” OSSE deputy chief of staff Jessie Harteis wrote in an e-mail.
Advertisement
Friendship Collegiate Athletic Director Mike Hunter said the school would not comment on the matter “until we officially turn in rosters” for the basketball season. IDEA Athletic Director Brandon Johnson said this was the first time his school had dealt with a residency challenge and would “let due process take its place.”
Each student’s family has the right to appeal the non-residency finding to OSSE’s Office of Administrative Hearings.
“There were tips that came in about these four individuals, and [OSSE] deemed there was sufficient question about whether these students are indeed residents,” said DCSAA executive director Clark Ray, who emphasized that his only role is to ensure a level playing field for all D.C. schools.
Athletics-based transfers and the usage of non-residents in football and basketball have been an ongoing problem for D.C. schools. The formation of the DCSAA in 2012 brought the city’s charter schools and public schools under one agency, but it also brought new rules and regulations in a city where eligibility requirements had largely gone unregulated.
Advertisement
Friendship Collegiate's football team, for instance, went through a similar investigation two years ago after the DCSAA questioned the residency of four players on its roster. The investigation was ultimately deemed "inconclusive," and the players were allowed to play that season. The transfer and residency issue remains a divisive one throughout the city.
“There’s a lot of holdover from years past. I think there’s still some people within all the schools, not just charters, that for many years it was the wild, wild West,” said D.C. Public Charter School Athletic Association executive director Richard Bettencourt, who is also the athletic director at Washington Latin. “Now that the DCSAA is in place, there’s some regulation in place that people have never had to abide by. Welcome to the rest of the education-based school athletic world. It’s not like we’ve reinvented the wheel here in D.C. We’ve just put rules in place to regulate things so that it’s fair.”
Moore’s mother, Brandy, was surprised to learn about OSSE’s findings when contacted Wednesday, noting she recently conducted a home visit with Friendship Collegiate officials in which she produced a deed for her Southeast Washington home, which also lists Alani’s name, and proof that she had been paying D.C. taxes.
Moore said she owns several homes around the Washington area and only recently began living in her Southeast Washington property, which had previously been rented out to tenants. Alani Moore elected to follow former Montrose Christian coach Bryan Bartley to Friendship Collegiate after Montrose Christian decided to de-emphasize its storied basketball program this past spring.
Advertisement
Alani Moore is considered one of the area's top basketball recruits and committed to Temple last month. He played his first two seasons of high school basketball at DeMatha before transferring to Montrose Christian last year.
“It’s so unfortunate that somebody would be out to get a kid that just wants to play basketball, not knowing the whole story,” Brandy Moore said.
Thomas could not be reached to comment, but he told The Post in an interview in April that he moved to the Washington area from St. Petersburg, Fla., to play for Montrose Christian. After Bartley resigned, Thomas said he initially planned to attend a school in Florida.
Bones is the reigning D.C. charter school league player of the year after IDEA won its first league championship last winter. Milstead was the team’s second-leading scorer. Both transferred to the Northeast Washington school last year from Carroll. Johnson said every student at IDEA must submit proof of residency to enroll and that he “had no idea” there was even a question about Bones and Milstead until Wednesday.
Advertisement
“You see it happen in football, and, of course, you see it in basketball,” Johnson said. “I think it’s something that’s going around or allegations go around about several students. I don’t think it’s just an IDEA thing.”
More from AllMetSports
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmigmZy1tK%2FHqKalq1%2BpvLF5wZqqpJ2kl66tuIypo5qxlafAbrLRqKRmnqKesq%2Bw0qGgqWWTpLmtscaimK2dXZ6xpq2MmqmeZaOqr6uxwq2qZqeWYr%2Bmv8idnKebqWK2r8LErKuin5GptrC6jmtnam1fZn1wfJdoa2xwZG6GdICMb5udbF1mfqaBjJtqaptdmYVxsJVrmW5rlWeFoL%2FTqKmyZpipuq0%3D