No good deed goes unpunished
Angry Chinook fans say school wronged athlete
On September 23 Dustin Thomas, a senior at Kalama High School (in the Kalama School District), dropped a friend off at a party. He returned later to pick up another friend who had called him for a ride. On October 3 the Kalama School Board suspended him for 20 days for being present at an event where alcohol was served.
CLARIFICATION 10/17/05: The Board suspended Dustin from extracurricular activity (the football team), not from scholastic attendance.
The school board investigated the matter the week after the party, said Jamie Imboden, attorney for Thomas and his family. He said the suspension took effect Oct. 3 and is continuing during Thomas’ appeal.
Imboden said Tuesday that the school board listened privately to Thomas, his attorney and others Monday night and said they will reconsider the matter and make a decision within 10 working days.
Since Dustin’s suspension is continuing while the school board reconsiders, it will be completed before the expected decision is rendered.
[Dustin] said he never entered the house, and witnesses told his attorney that no alcohol was present by the time he arrived.
For the Kalama school board, that’s close enough to being a wild party animal to hand down a 20 day suspension. And even when the populace rises up to tell you just how foolish you’re being all you need to do is fall back on bureaucratic inefficiency and the entire sentence will be completed before the unthinkable event of admitting a mistake becomes necessary.
Contact Information:
School Board President Russ Ipock
School Board Member Lisa Stevenson
School Board Member Bruce Rader
School Board Member Dave Walker
School Board Member Wes Eader
School District Superintendent Jim Sutton
Kalama High Principal Mike Hamilton
Kalama High Assistant Principal Brad Ramey
Are students allowed to remain at home if their parents serve alcohol to other adults? When did school authorities get jurisdiction over student activities off school property outside of school hours?
Unless a student is potentially dangerous to other students, any suspension should be postponed until the incident investigation is complete — or until the student does something wrong AT SCHOOL.
I had the same thought regarding alcohol being served in a student’s home, or even in a restaurant. Unfortunately, Kalama does not post any of its policies on its website so I was not able to check into it.
So wait, lets back up for a moment. One of the big things in alcohol education for minors is abstain, however if you don’t abstain secure a designated driver so you can keep the roadways safe and yourself safe.
So if they teach these principles then why do they punish someone for trying to do the right thing?
Oh wait, I forgot that hipocrisy was the word on the page they ripped out of every dictionary in their school board office…
More and more we hear about this: students being punished for what they do on their own time and away from school. How do the schools even find out about this stuff? Are they spying on students? I don’t see where they get off. I hope he sues and wins. Students have rights too!
This is a situation where parents should decide if any punishment will take place in the home, and the school Board should not have their nose in it. Public Schools were given the right to basically do whatever they want when it comes to suspension and expulsion since the Columbine incident even if it makes no sense at all. Back when I was growing up if you got into trouble on the weekend (off school property and off school hours) you had your mother and father to worry about, not what the School Principal and the BOE was going to hand down as punishment too….Kids will be kids, and I don’t condone this behavior, but I also can not condone taking kids out of the school system unless they pose any danger or major interruption to the learning process. BOE’s and administrator’s should go back to what they are supposed to do and ensure that our kids can read,write, spell, solve math problems, and pass State mandated and Federal mandated tests, and leave the parenting on the weekends and evenings to parents. This has to stop…….How they think they are helping anyone at all by taking them out of school is just beyond me. I don’t get it….
Deb
I stand corrected. I just read the actual article regarding this matter, and apparently he was not suspended from school, he was suspended from the Football team for 20 days. There again, I think the punishment should be up to the coach. he should set the rules for the team and enforce them, not the BOE and administration. Kids can lean good lessons when they mess up, we don’t have to criminalize it by removing them from the school system and make them feel really beat down. If the student was not caught drinking on this evening (and it certainly doesn’t sound like he was) then I don’t see why he has to miss any time with the team, let alone 20 days…….
Good luck to this student, I really hope the BOE comes around and does the right thing…..
Deb
If the student signed a BOE approved conduct code for the athletic team then the district has every right to suspend this student from play.
Consider the district’s position: If we allow these bachannalias to take place under the presumed aegis of “school athletes having a little fun” with out full knowledge, then we condone them. When someone gets hurt, we will get sued.
It happens all the time. Perhaps the district needs parents to sign a release of liability form.
Shadowhawk: Students have rights too!
No, they don’t. They are most likely minors and if they are in their majority, locus parentii fits the bill. Students only beleive they have rights.
Jim — as proprieter of this site, I expect more from you. You’re slanting stories just to raise the outgrage quotient… no better than the media at large. Pointing out that the suspension was from the sports team and not from school is nothing more than bias by omission.
The way this was posted, I also thought the kid was suspended from school, not the football team. When I realized that he just can’t play football, frankly I suddenly cared a great deal less about whether an injustice has been done. This is the sort of thing that matters in Texas, where high school football is more of a religion than an extra-curricular activity. It seems to me like the angry community members just want to win, and ought to get their priorities straight. School is right but sports participation is a priviledge.
As to the question of how they found out about it, the story says “Imboden said that two other football players who were inside the house have also been suspended for 20 days.” So, the kids who were at the party were questioned, and one of the questions was, probably, “How did you get home?” That’s how this kid got implicated.
Why didn’t the kid who needed a ride call his parents for a lift home? You know why. Because he knew he was breaking the rules and hoped he could keep that a secret, that’s why. So picking the kid up, while seemingly a helpful “good deed,” was actually aiding and abetting the rule breaking. I can see where the school board is coming from: If you drive the getaway car, you’re just as guilty as the people who did the crime.
There’s no evidence he aided and abetted. Some kids in high school don’t have indulgent parents who provide them with a car, so they often ask friends for rides. If he refused to pick them up, they might drive or ride with someone who was drinking.
More to the point, stop and think about this rule. They’re not allowed to be present where alcohol is served. They can’t have dinner at a restaurant with a liquor license? How are Catholics supposed to attend Mass, or Jews a Seder? My parents had a martini every night before dinner, while I was in the house. For crying out loud, when I was in high school (class of ‘81) there were always some troublemakers in the top of the bleachers passing around a flask who were never caught, so, strictly speaking, the team is barred from showing up for the game.
While the school officials’ frustration in dealing with these parties is understandable, we once again find ourselves faced with the fact that you can’t have perfect enforcement in a free society. They need to realize that the nature of our constitutional system means there will always be a few wrongdoers who slip through their fingers. That’s life.
My apologies for the confusion. I misread the article myself and thought he was suspended from classes for 20 days. I’ll correct the post as soon as possible.
Gee, my nephew would have never managed to get into school without being suspended. He didn’t drink, but his friends knew that they could call on him to pick them up if they drank too much. His parents encouraged him to pick up other kids who drank too much in order to keep people safe by keeping drunk drivers off the road.
I understand that if someone on the football team (or any group or organization that might have signed an agreement not to drink or do drugs) violated that agreement then they stand subject to discipline (which should be spelled out before the kids sign anything). But to be punished for picking up kids and keeping drunk drivers off the road, that’s just wrong.
We try to teach kids not to drive drunk, but who is going to drive them if you get the same punishment for driving someone who’s drunk home as you would have gotten if you’d been drunk?
Something similar happened to my son several years ago and we have never completely recovered. I read your blog daily and I thank you for having it.
Look, I’m against kids abusing alcohol, but how does this policy make sense?
”School policy forbids students from attending or remaining at events where alcohol is served.”
It completely undermines PERSONAL responsibility and creates a group culpability. I like in the United States and although there are people who drink here and murder and beat up on people, I don’t see that as something for which I personally should be held responsible. (unless you are speaking in the higher philosophical duty to my fellow man sense, which we aren’t here)
Sure a kid shouldn’t drink or encourage other kids to drink, but how does the school get to decide the behavior of a student OUTSIDE of school grounds, school hours, and school-sponsored functions? This is properly a function of PARENTS, not schools, and Mr. JAFO, don’t tell me that parents aren’t doing enough, so the school has to assume that role also. That is a consequence of freedom — taking the good with the bad.
Yes, the students might have signed some additional contract/agreement further limiting their privileges, but that would be their CHOICE not the right of the school.
Mr. Hannan,
Have me figured out and pidgen-holed already, do you?
Parents aren’t doing enough. We all already know that. If parents were raising their kids and not expecting the school to do it, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
It is not the school’s responsibility or job to raise children. Their job is to educate. Still, that doesn’t stop parents from calling and complaining loudly at report card time, now does it?
Perhaps… schools are a reflection of the community’s expectations as a whole. If the general populace didn’t want this behavior, they could most certainly put a stop to it.
And yet… either through ignorance, apathy, or condonement, here we are.
I don’t like it, either, but I refuse to let people off the hook and avoid personal responsibility. The government is not the creator nor the answer to your problems.
Mr. JAFO (by the way what does that stand for?),
I believe you are right. It is ignorance, apathy, and not condonement, as much as a willingness to trust that the schools know what is best and are doing it.
I think sites like this one give communities and individuals a better awareness of the state of the school system, and hopefully put a stop to inane policies.
I guess if I pidgeonholed you, it was assuming that you are all too ready to throw up your hands and let the schools have their way. My apologies if I have mischaracterized you. You are here at this site, after all.
Scott,
The acronym comes from the 1983 movie Blue Thunder. It stands for Just Another Friendly Observer… or something like that.
http://www.moviequotes.com/fullquote.cgi?qnum=3169
Many folks enjoy sites like this, but for most, it is just a place to get outraged and spout off. Folks that post here with their panties in a bunch and send off angry e-mails are guilty of slacktivism.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.htm
If the system is really broken, people should do something about it. I don’t trust the media to give a straight story about anything. If I’m really upset about my local school, I’ll run for the board. Heck, I could even attempt to get a face-to-face meeting with the principal to calmly and rationally discuss what’s bothering me. Getting angry here surely doesn’t help the cause.
Just my opinion… I don’t think the machine is broken. It just needs fixing, and I’m not the guy to do it.
JAFO, this site also works effectively to raise awareness of these problems. With such awareness, and better information, true activists can take action … such as, for example, testify at legislative hearings (which, btw, I have); or, at least vote. Or connect to other parents and students who are also victims of inane policies.
Here’s an interesting thought: because these policies affect minors, schools can hide behind confidentiality. Normally, this is a good thing, as it protects youngsters. But, in these cases, it is likely prolonging the inanity behind these kind of policies, because they’re not seeing the light of day, nor subject to external scrutinty, legal precedence, etc.
So, what’s the antidote? Simply more public exposure: that goes a long way. Several cases have been quietly overturned after receiving early media and public exposure. Quiet, because at this stage, I’ve never seen a principal or school district publicly apologize for their overzealousnes yet.
Kevin,
So, it’s the old apology thing again.
If only they’d APOLOGIZE, everything would be hunky-dory!
Maybe not. Lawsuits wouldn’t diminish. Press bashing wouldn’t, either.
This site isn’t about trying to bring light to a problem any more than the Imams in middle eastern mosques are. Both exist to incite and whip up outrage and mob behavior.
My whole point is this:
1. The press does not give the educational system a fair shake.
2. People who want to effect a change should do that instead of bitching about it.
Question: I’ve looked around here and I haven’t seen a collaboration or an exclusive entry about how to fix the ‘problem’. Why do you suppose that is?
Remember the old saw: If you’re not part of the solution…
There are several such posts, Jafo. Look in the “General” category for editorials.
The press doesn’t give the education system a fair shake? What color is the sky in your world.
The press overwhelmingly supports more money for our free spending education system, from local levies up to pork-laden federal legislation. They unquestioningly support myths about the efficacy of increased spending, smaller class size, etc. Many of these ZT nightmares are studiously and dutifully ignored by the press, but I think the media is entitled to a little anger when the system embarasses the hand that feeds it.
As for solutions, when denial is so widespread, the first step to solution is making people aware of the problem.
And the Superdome was a lawless no-man’s-land with murder and rapes…
And the Iraq war is ignoble and unjustifed…
And George Bush is a blithering idiot…
And cops routinely participate in brutality…
And indictiments are sure to be handed down for Libbey and Rove…
And Tom DeLay is a no-good cheating, money laundering criminal…
Oh wait.
Turns out that the Superdome was nothing of the sort.
Whether you’re for or against the war, the media is sure to shove their opinion of ignobility down your throat.
Nobody makes it to the office of President as an idiot…. even Jimmy Carter is intelligent.
Cops aren’t routinely brutal no matter what the media would like you to beleive.
Fitzgerald’s office hasn’t said word one about ANYTHING. If indictiments are handed down, who’s to say that Libbey or Rove are even in the running? Who? The media… they hate Rove and Libbey with a passion.
A politically motivated prosecution that takes three grand juries to hand down a weak charge… hey, if you can’t win at the ballot box, prosecute those who do.
Easy examples from the top of my head, dweeb.
You can beleive everything you read or see on TV, but the media has an agenda and they’re pushing it. In the case of schools, the agenda is outrage. Class sizes are just too small! Teachers and Principals are letting your kids learn in a dangerous environment! Teachers and Principals are being oppressive! NEvermind the fact that we just lambasted them for not doing enough… when they do, we’ll name them all dictators!
Seriously.
The state of our educational system is a direct result of our society. Blame goes first to Federal and state legislators, then to school boards, then to the voters in the community. Administrators and teachers fall pretty low on the list.
You on the school board, Dweeb?
Have you held a rally?
Done anything or just bitching?
Sorry, but the media in these parts is NOT jumping on the schools. They’re waxing poetic about the PC indoctrination and the need for more money. The media seems to take dictation from the NEA.
Now, as to what I’ve done?
I just lost an appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court as a plaintiff, stemming from a drive to
repeal a school levy in the second highest taxed district in the state, after I completely organized the petition drive last summer. While we didn’t get the repeal on the ballot, we scared the board into cutting the budget to below 2003-2004 levels, and into finally negotiating a contract with the teachers’ union that gets them to pay some of their own healthcare premiums.
I couldn’t have done any of it without the sort of networking and awareness raising that happens here and on other blogs. Most of the people involved became aware of it through the ‘bitching’ you seem so dismissive of.