‘Archery is my life’: Student athlete sees more archery wins as funding is cut from Kentucky schools

JENKINS, Ky. (WYMT) – While one Letcher County student has been focused on bringing in more awards for her archery skills, schools across the commonwealth are seeing a loss of funding for their programs.

The 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), an effort to come together on both sides of the aisle and improve school safety among other things, has received backlash from Kentucky officials this month.

Last week, a letter signed by Senators Stephen West, Phillip Wheeler and Johnnie Turner was accompanied by a call to action by Kentucky’s senate education chair, both letters asking President Joe Biden’s administration to correct a “misinterpretation” in the law to keep funding in place for school archery and hunting programs.

Senator Rand Paul sent a similar letter this week, co-signed by 18 other Senate Republicans, claiming the BSCA will be detrimental to students in the commonwealth.

“The Biden Administration’s purposeful misinterpretation of the gun control bill is attempting to take away valuable programs from students across the country. Hunter education and archery programs are beneficial to students both in rural and urban areas. We call on the Biden Administration to immediately withdraw the guidance and support these essential programs,” the letter included.

Some students impacted include Kimber Collins, an eighth-grader at Jenkins Independent who has used archery to find her focus- going as far as to say “archery is my life.”

“It’s helped me with my grades a lot. You know, you got to be a student athlete to do it so it’s helped me with my academics, it’s helped me socially-wise. It’s helped me come out and have a lot more friends and have a lot more fun in school,” she said.

The school archery program, she said, has been important in helping her hit the mark in and out of the classroom, allowing her to find balance between academics and athletics.

“I’ve seen archery change who she is,” said superintendent Damian Johnson. “It has helped her to grow and develop into a strong and confident young woman.”

Though she has no desire to be involved in the political side of the conversation, she hopes to continue using her bow and arrows well into the future. Last week, she brought home several more awards and $1,750 in scholarship funds for first place shooting at the International Bowhunting Organization’s World Championship.

“It’s amazing. It’s one of the best feelings to know you put in all that work and you got it out,” she said.

School administrators said the program has helped her grow, and they hope to continue providing a space where students can focus in on hitting the mark.

“This bill was passed with a good intention it was through a bipartisan effort to establish safer and healthier learning environments for our students but I think that it is now being misconstrued,” said Johnson.

He said the safety concerns should not warrant defunding, since the programs have not proven harmful to anyone. He does, however, find them useful to those who participate.

“I think that because of NASP (the National Archery in the Schools Program), and other programs like that, that students have a greater respect for deadly weapon safety,” he said.

Johnson said the district will look for other ways to keep the program shooting if federal funding is not an option, but he worries about the more than 100,000 students across the commonwealth who will lose out on the education and opportunities the sport provides. So, he hope the administration will clear up the concerns and provide guidance that will help keep the programs alive.

“I believe enough in the the importance of those programs to make those opportunities available to our to our kids,” said Johnson. “Even if it comes at a cost to us.”

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