synopsis: football kids go to party, get caught. they are suspended from the team because thats what the rules say to do. Now the parents are complaining...
Here's my complaint. You suck as parents and your kids are dumb.
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local-beat/East-Haven-Athletes-Barred-from-Play-After-Underage-Party-60477907.html
Updated 12:01 AM EDT, Wed, Sep 23, 2009
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NBC Connecticut first told you about four football players and two cheerleaders getting sidelined for the Yellow jacket's season opener Thursday.
"It's more than a team, we're like family, and to lose four players, it's like losing four family members," said Taivarr Pierce, an East Haven High School football player.
The six were kicked off their teams after the school learned they were at a party where 23 underage students got arrested for possession of alcohol. Parents are outraged at the decision.
"If we take this away from these kids, we've taken away everything they've done since they were six years old. Let the second offense be dismissal," said Coree Limoncelli, whose son was suspended from the team.
Parents and students took their concerns to the Superintendent and the Board of Education. At a meeting Tuesday, they said the school's policy was unfair and only selectively enforced.
"Per their rules, number one it says any child that's guilty of possession of alcohol or drugs is immediately suspended. I said, 'Isn't this America where we're entitled to due process?' Where she's innocent till proven guilty?' We have a lawyer, we're going to court where we're going to argue she wasn't in possession of alcohol or drugs," said Jonathan Allen, whose daughter was kicked off the cheerleading team.
But East Haven School Superintendent Anthony Serio says he stands by the decision and doesn't think the punishment is too harsh.
"Many athletes have lived by this rule for many, many years. We've never had a situation of this magnitude," said Serio.
Because of this situation, many parents and even the football coach are demanding the Board of Ed review the policy and change it retroactively.
"If it was written wrong, fix it. If it needs to be fixed, then fix it right now," said football coach Greg Volpe.
"If any policy is made it needs to be realistic. It needs to allow school administrators to consider all the facts on a case by case basis. There should also be progressive discipline," said Terry Kasperzyk, whose son was one of the football players involved.
Serio and the Board of Ed will be looking at the school's policy to see if it needs to be changed. They say if there are changes, they will most likely affect future cases, not the athletes already involved.
I agree with the decision.
Sports are not reality. Parents need to stop living vicariously through their children. punish the little snots.
If you did this to your employer (broke contract), you most likely would be permanently gone.
Blaming everyone else and taking the focus off the original problem, your kids berkeleyed up/
At our local school the players actually sign a contract, no verbage, no negotiation, no BS. Screw up you're gone.
Last year parents bought alcohol for a party described above, three kids got hurt in a car accident. The parents are in jail.
Good.
914Driver wrote:
Last year parents bought alcohol for a party.......
Really? In "2009" people would actually buy alcohol for a group of minors? How stupid can they......
Here at a HS in Columbus, a group of 4-6 (?) students got suspended from the Football team for giving the "Shocker" sign in the Team photo for the Season Program.
Grtechguy wrote:
I agree with the decision.
Sports are not reality. Parents need to stop living vicariously through their children. punish the little snots.
If you did this to your employer (broke contract), you most likely would be permanently gone.
LOL TOO TRUE! I personly don't believe young kids should be allowed to play full contact football. A friend of mine is letting her kid play @ 8yrs old cause "he's her meal ticket o retirement" WTF??? don't get me wrong he's a BIG 8 yr old, but holy cow, come on. BUT I can promise you one thing, it will be years before someone else that's serious about sports screws up like that.
Grtechguy wrote:
I agree with the decision.
Sports are not reality. Parents need to stop living vicariously through their children. punish the little snots.
If you did this to your employer (broke contract), you most likely would be permanently gone.
Tell that to Michael Vick. I heard he is back on the job.
pete240z wrote:
914Driver wrote:
Last year parents bought alcohol for a party.......
Really? In "2009" people would actually buy alcohol for a group of minors? How stupid can they......
Very.
http://archives.timesunion.com/mweb/wmsql.wm.request?oneimage&imageid=7778000
Opens up a whole nother thread-issue-opinions. Your kid was drinking, driving and killed someone. Sure you want to knuckle up your kid, but if I were the parents of the dead child, I'd be outside the jail on day 60 with some kind of weapon.
That's just me....
Parents must have been Democrats!
WilD
Reader
9/23/09 9:02 a.m.
These types of conduct rules have been around for ages. They were certainly a part of the athletic program when I was in HS 15 years ago. If my memory is correct, you could even face a temporary suspension for smoking a cigarette. Sports and cheerleading are an extra activity and are a privledge. Of course, it was not enforced. The sports programs were the nexus of alcohol abuse at my school, and I suspect most schools. people look the other way and enable most of the time.
If we take this away from these kids, we've taken away everything they've done since they were six years old.
I think that is the core problem. If these parents insist on pursuing this, I'd cancel both the football and cheerleading program. It is clearly doing harm to the youth and they need to find something more meaningful to live for.
um... I hate to pee in the koolaid here, but 6 kids were suspended from sports because they were AT a party where OTHERS were charged with possessing alcohol when the school "found out" about it?
1) Did they possess alcohol? Did they even know there was alcohol there?
2) Isn't it possible that a 17 or 18 year old high school student could attend a party with alcohol where 21 and up were drinking and be in violation of the school policy, as written, while breaking no laws and doing basically nothing wrong?
3) how did "the school" "find out" that they were there? Who else might have been there that the school didn't "find out" about? Was it through police reports? Was it through a rumor mill? I have a feeling there were plenty of other football players at parties that involved alcohol that weekend, perhaps theirs just didn't get raided by the cops.
It seems like a pretty stupid policy to me. There's no burden on the school to prove anything. All they have to do is say that they heard a student was at a party where there was alcohol (could it even be a party his parents were throwing?) and he is gone.
WilD
Reader
9/23/09 9:14 a.m.
1) Probably, certainly
2) no
3) this is true
carguy123 wrote:
Parents must have been Democrats!
The parents of most of the kids busted at the Highland Park Texas drinking parties were Republicans, and Republicans who can afford to pay lawyers to get their kids off the hook.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/2005-11-03/news/rich-kids-behaving-badly/1
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=highland+park&page=3
In the 2007/8 season, this happened to a group of football players at my son's high school. They got the boot, life went on.
I can honestly say I never drank during season when I was in school because of the student-athlete no-tolerance contract. Before and after the season? Does a bear piss in the woods? But never during.
Helicopter parenting at its best.
The private school my wife used to work at was FULL of parents like this. Imagine hundreds of kids who can do no wrong, with parents powerful enough to make sure the school administration knows it. Any time my wife had to punish a child she would get a phone call from the headmaster within hours to "rethink" her decision. Nevermind children fighting (enough to draw blood), cussing, disrespecting faculty, or stealing. No amount of evidence could convince one of these parents that their child was pretty much a little bastard.
The kids and parents knew the rules, and the rules are there for a reason. If this had been a bunch of band kids I guarantee you 1,000,000,000,000,000% you would have never heard of it.
Uh considering the one kids going to court I'm guessing they were arrested and that is how the school found out.
Playing on school teams is not a right. Follow the rules or get tossed is the norm. That normally includes keeping a proper GPA as well. These kids need to learn that life is not just going to be handed to them on a silver platter and their actions have consequences. Thats the problem with so many kids today is they are spoiled rotten little brats. If I had broken the rules like that when I was in high school my parents would have agreed to have me kicked off the team. Not only that I would have lost my car and just about every other privileged I had.
Snowdoggie wrote:
Grtechguy wrote:
I agree with the decision.
Sports are not reality. Parents need to stop living vicariously through their children. punish the little snots.
If you did this to your employer (broke contract), you most likely would be permanently gone.
Tell that to Michael Vick. I heard he is back on the job.
Wes Cobb (kick ass musician who played at last year's Mitty, and will be at the 2010 Mitty again) put it this way:
"Mike Vick has paid his debt to society, he should be allowed to play again........of course the first time he loses a game, they should shoot him in the head, hang him, or electrocute him!" (just like he did to his dogs)
sorry for the hi-jack
EricM
HalfDork
9/23/09 9:48 a.m.
I had to miss a soccer game in High School because I got a C on a history test..... I didn't fail it, and I wasn't failing the class, I just didn't do very well on one test. When the elegibility sheet was sent around my teacher put my name on it.
I sat the game out.
these students and parents need to shut the berkeley up.
Teenagers drinking alcohol? I can't believe it's true. Where will it end?
Kids go to a party outside school, on their own time, and are suspended from the team.
One has nothing to do with the other. The school is on a power trip.
suprf1y wrote:
Teenagers drinking alcohol? I can't believe it's true. Where will it end?
Kids go to a party outside school, on their own time, and are suspended from the team.
One has nothing to do with the other. The school is on a power trip.
Not too different from employers..... many employers here in Michigan forbid their employee's from using tobacco.
PERIOD! not at work, the parking lot, cars, home. ZERO.
fire-able offense in the new hires contracts.
I've heard about that.
Don't you find it ironic that, in a country whose people are obsessed with individual freedom, that is allowed to happen? I do.
It wouldn't fly up here.
Joe Gearin wrote:
Snowdoggie wrote:
Grtechguy wrote:
I agree with the decision.
Sports are not reality. Parents need to stop living vicariously through their children. punish the little snots.
If you did this to your employer (broke contract), you most likely would be permanently gone.
Tell that to Michael Vick. I heard he is back on the job.
Wes Cobb (kick ass musician who played at last year's Mitty, and will be at the 2010 Mitty again) put it this way:
"Mike Vick has paid his debt to society, he should be allowed to play again........of course the first time he loses a game, they should shoot him in the head, hang him, or electrocute him!" (just like he did to his dogs)
sorry for the hi-jack
I could think of a few Cowboys we could do this to after this last week.
But, Superfly, they had the freedom to agree to the terms of playing on that team or working for that employer. It's called a contract. You make the choice knowing those terms before you agree to play or work. If you want to drink then don't sign up to play.