Miss Tri-Cities Outstanding Teen loses title over age issue

Sarah Carlson played the Pirates of the Caribbean theme on piano to thunderous applause.

The skilled performance won her the talent prize during the Miss Tri-Cities Outstanding Teen competition July 18 in Kennewick.

It also helped her capture the top honor.

Winning was a surprising and happy experience, Sarah said. But it’s since been soured.

Late last month, pageant officials revoked Sarah’s title, $2,450 in scholarship money and thousands of dollars in other prizes.

The reason? Her age.

It turns out Sarah is about two weeks too old to compete in the state and national Outstanding Teen pageants next year. She’ll turn 18 on July 20. To be eligible for those contests, girls must not turn 18 on or before July 31 of the pageant year.

Local pageant officials say being eligible for the state and national contests is a requirement for the local competition, although her parents dispute that.

“It’s a very unfortunate situation and we’re very saddened by what happened,” said Dot Stewart, executive director of the Miss Tri-Cities Scholarship Program.

The Carlsons are upset, too.

Sarah didn’t do anything wrong, said her parents, Ron and Melanie.

She had no inkling of an eligibility problem, and she never misrepresented her age or birthdate during the application process, they said.

Local pageant officials knew Sarah’s birthdate — the girl provided it at least five times while applying, including handing over a copy of her birth certificate and driver’s license, the family said.

“If she were ineligible (for the local pageant) it’s on them. It’s their mistake,” yet Sarah is the one being penalized, Ron Carlson said. “We would like them to take some responsibility.”

Sarah is the second local pageant winner to lose her title this year. In late July, pageant officials learned that the newly crowned Miss Tri-Cities, Maeloni R. Ogle, had failed to disclose a misdemeanor theft charge. She lost her title and $12,000 in scholarship money and other prizes.

The Carlson family got a call from Stewart about the age issue a few days after the pageant. That set off months of back-and-forth.

The Carlsons proposed that Sarah keep the title, with the first runner-up appearing with her at events and representing the Tri-Cities at the Miss Washington’s Outstanding Teen pageant next spring.

But that proposal didn’t make sense because “even though she was ineligible to compete, (in that scenario) we would have (been allowing) her to have a term for a full year,” said Pam Renard, executive director of Miss Washington’s Outstanding Teen.

Stewart added, “We tried to work with the family on a (settlement) where she would still get some scholarship money, but we couldn’t reach an agreement.”

The Carlsons said the offer was shrouded with “unacceptable language, non-disparagement clauses ... and confidentiality clauses” that wouldn’t allow Sarah to speak truthfully about why her title was gone.

They also believe Sarah was eligible for the local pageant, regardless of her eligibility for the state and national competitions.

The 19-page pageant contract never makes eligibility for the other pageants a requirement for the local event, they said.

Instead, “a careful reading of this text shows that the applicant is required to declare their understanding about the eligibility requirements of the national finals pageant to be held 14 months in the future,” the family said in a statement.

“There are no statements in the contract requiring eligibility for next year’s national finals pageant in order to be eligible for this year’s local pageant,” the family said.

The Carlsons also said the age chart used to determine eligibility discriminates against girls like Sarah with birthdays in the latter part of July and can put them in kind-of a no man’s land. Sarah is too old for the state and national teen competitions, for example, but too young for the Miss Tri-Cities-Washington-America track, the family said.

When it comes to the scholarship money, the only grounds for forfeiture is misrepresenting eligibility — something Sarah didn’t do, the family said.

Stewart and Renard said the local pageant is a preliminary for the state and national competitions, and eligibility for those pageants is an established requirement.

The age chart was created by national officials after months of work, and the local pageant must use it. And, Sarah was ineligible to compete in the pageant and therefore shouldn’t have been in the running for the scholarship money, they said.

Stewart said pageant officials rely on contestants and families to ensure eligibility requirements are met. She also acknowledged she didn’t catch the age issue herself before Sarah was crowned.

“I think it was an oversight on both sides of the house,” she said.

“We wish this hadn’t happened,” Stewart added. “Sarah is a lovely, talented young woman and we wish her the best in the future.”

The Miss Tri-Cities program is designed to provide scholarships to young women, and “we want to move forward doing what we do best, supporting young women in our community and offering them scholarships,” Stewart said.

Sarah’s parents said they reviewed the contract carefully before signing it and weren’t remiss.

Sarah is now a junior at Chiawana High School in Pasco. She has interests from music to chemistry to foreign languages. She speaks French fluently and is learning German and Russian.

She said speaking up about the pageant issue is about principle.

“I would like to see something like this never happen again,” she said.

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Miss Tri-Cities Outstanding Teen loses title over age issue."