An investigator for the Maine Human Rights Commission is supporting a complaint that the Maine Principals Association discriminated against a star basketball player for Cheverus High School when it tried to keep him from playing last year.

The 11-page report, made public late Friday, says there were reasonable grounds to believe that the principals association discriminated against Indiana Faithfull on the basis of national origin.

The association ruled Faithfull ineligible to play after determining that his eight semesters or four seasons of participation in basketball had been used. At issue was Faithfull’s transfer from a school in Australia, where the school calendar put him one year ahead of Maine’s system.

The report is on the agenda for a Human Rights Commission meeting May 16 in Augusta. Faithfull will be at the meeting, said his attorney, Paul Greene of the Portland firm Preti Flaherty.

A phone message left on Faithfull’s cellphone Friday evening was not returned. He is now a post-graduate student at St. Thomas More School in Connecticut.

Efforts to reach Cheverus officials and Dick Durost, executive director of the Maine Principals Association, were also unsuccessful.

In response to a second complaint filed by Faithfull, the report says there were no reasonable grounds to believe that the association acted in a retaliatory manner when it sought to bar him from playing in the second semester of his senior year, 2009-10.

Faithfull sat out some regular season games while his parents sued in Cumberland County Superior Court, challenging the MPA’s ruling.

Justice Joyce Wheeler granted an injunction and a temporary restraining order, allowing Faithfull to play. He helped Cheverus win the Class A state basketball championship.

The principals association has argued that, based on MPA eligibility rules, Cheverus should forfeit the title.

The Human Rights Commission report, signed by Executive Director Patricia Ryan and Chief Investigator Barbara Lelli, pointed to past waivers granted by the MPA when “circumstances beyond their control make a student ineligible for athletic participation … The MPA should recognize that a student’s national origin is also a circumstance beyond his control and not apply the Four Seasons Rule in such cases.”

The report recommends “conciliation” on the issue. It recommends that the complaint of retaliation by the MPA be dismissed. “We’re obviously pleased,” Greene said Friday evening. “We felt all along the MPA’s interpretation of its own rules was irrational and wooden.”

The commission is expected to rule on the matter after the hearing May 16. The results of the hearing will become part of the case presented to Wheeler in court.

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at:

ssolloway@pressherald.com