Armstrong: Denying sports participation wrong tactic
Bruce Armstrong
Senior citizens like me know all too well how precious each year of life is. We old guys and girls understand that each year gives you once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that can never be repeated. You have to seize those special moments and enjoy them because they'll never come again.
Unfortunately, young people don't always recognize that they are letting an opportunity pass that will never be available to them again. This is especially true of young athletes.
The few years of recreation, middle school and high school sports are so very brief that you can't afford to miss any of them. The memories that you make in sports in your youth are golden treasures that are priceless. You will relieve those special memories forever.
I am heartbroken when I see talented athletes forfeit their opportunity to create those special memories. I am disappointed when the school system takes away the opportunity of young people to participate in sports rather than finding more positive means of discipline.
I see a disturbing trend in which some of our most talented athletes have not participated in high school sports. Some have chosen not to play for personal reasons. I suspect that every young athlete who gives up sports will later regret it.
More troubling are the cases of high school athletes whose opportunity to play is taken away by their school administration for poor academic performance or misconduct.
Athletes can lose their eligibility for a variety of in-school reasons: failing two classes in a semester, excessive absences or long-term suspension for violation of school rules (usually possession of alcohol, marijuana or weapons on campus).
Students may also lose their eligibility for sports because of off-campus misconduct, such as any pending unresolved criminal misdemeanor, any felony conviction, any misdemeanor conviction that in the principal's discretion justifies loss of eligibility and any off-campus use or possession of alcohol or any controlled substance.
Certainly the primary responsibility for maintaining athletic eligibility lies with the athlete and his parents. Every student should have good attendance, work hard to pass their classes and stay away from anything that's illegal. That's the basic behavior that every parent and every school asks of all students.
I also believe that the punishment should fit the crime, and with school discipline, that's not always the case. I strongly disagree with the policy of suspending athletes' eligibility for just being accused of an off-campus misdemeanor. The backlog in our court system frequently requires several months or longer for misdemeanor cases to be tried. The school board policy of suspending athletic eligibility when a charge is pending means the student's sport may conclude its season before the case is even tried. An innocent student can lose an entire season. This policy is especially ridiculous since principals have the discretion to allow a student to play sports after a conviction - but not while presumed innocent pending trial.
I also disagree with the 365-day loss of eligibility for off-campus possession or use of alcohol or marijuana. Students who are not athletes receive no punishment from the school for off-campus beer or marijuana possession or use. That misbehavior certainly should be punished by the child's parents, the courts and their coach. Restrictions at home, community service through the courts, laps and bench time from the coach are effective punishment for these minor offenses. Mandatory alcohol and drug abuse counseling are also effective without taking away sports.
We need to recognize that not all students are equal academically. Some students who are gifted athletically have learning disabilities. Some students have home environments that are not conducive to school work. Why not provide mandatory after-school tutoring for the "at-risk" athletes as a condition of maintaining their athletic eligibility?
The students and the community benefit from keeping "at-risk" athletes in the structured environment of team sports. For many of them, their coach is the only positive role model they have. Those students who lose their sports eligibility are sent home after school to the negative influences of the streets. We need to discipline athletes without taking way their primary source of motivation to succeed. Taking away sports should be the discipline of last resort.
See you at the games.
Bruce Armstrong is a lawyer who lives in Hope Mills. He can be reached at LawyerArmstrong@aol.com.