Nothing has been fair since March until now. Children have been in a game of tug of war throughout the school year. One moment they are in a hybrid model, the next they are totally remote.

Northern Chautauqua Catholic School in Dunkirk, however, has bucked that trend. It has remained in session from the start through today and has seen a tremendous increase in enrollment due to uncertainty in the public school districts.

There have been challenges, however. One of the biggest — also involved the public districts with sports participation. It appears Section 6 is the only state to not allow Catholic school participation.

“We were more interested in wrestling, soccer, swimming,” said Principal Andrew Ludwig. “That’s what kids wanted, so I did research on how I could get kids on local teams, whether it’s Dunkirk or Fredonia kid, and public schools are saying it’s not allowable. There are 11 sports sections in New York and Section 6 is the only one that doesn’t allow it.”

A recent vote, that turned down participation by the Catholic school students, was one more bitter pill even though the tally was not presented to Ludwig.

Taxpayers in this county pay dearly in school taxes. You would think — sometime soon — there could be a solution that would make everyone happy.

Right now for those impacted, however, it is one more punishment during an unkind 10 months.