Kicked off Team for Writing a Poem?

[Chin Diesel]

Or for being a ?

Funny thing about free speech. Too often people think it means they can say whatever to whomever and there can't be any consequences.

Truth be told, football is a privelige not a right and the kid isn't going to jail or paying any fines.

Bashing your coach and teammates publicly has consequences. And I'll concede the kid may be right. Maybe the coach is favoring his son, maybe the son does suck and Akron is getting a dud.

But the kid has to learn that he'd be fired from almost every company if he published that.

Notice how Mike Foley's similar poem about PP and GDL wasn't ever published?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highs...ked-off-team-suspended-writing-094105586.html

Stupid
Losing season,
Favoritism,
Non stop passes from best friend to best friend.
Continuously doing what doesn't work,
The inability to separate being a father and a coach.
Dropped passes,
But yet still the "super star",
Yeah right.
Where's my scholarship?
I can drop passes,
Run backwards,
Miss tackles,
And be afraid to take a hit.
That's top line div. 1 material right there.
If that's what they wanted,
They definitely got it.
This whole town will be glad when he is gone.
For anyone who doesn't understand what I am saying?
AKRON'S SCREWED!​

 

[freescooter]

People make the mistake all the time that freedom of speech means you can say anything you want to anyone. Of course it doesn't. Freedom of speech applies to POLITICAL speech. This was an example of a kid writing a poem specifically attacking a teammate. I suspect I would have handled it a little differently where I the coach...probably used it as a learning experience. Required him to apologize to the teammate and the team, something along those lines, rather than booting him. The fact that he wrote poetry is really an aside. Would it been any different if he had written an essay in an expository writing class ripping another student, athlete or not? Of course not. This was inappropriate. The punishment might have been over the top, but so was the poem.

 

[noeynox]

His poem sucked, probably why the kicked him off.

 

[huskymedic]

People make the mistake all the time that freedom of speech means you can say anything you want to anyone. Of course it doesn't. Freedom of speech applies to POLITICAL speech. This was an example of a kid writing a poem specifically attacking a teammate. I suspect I would have handled it a little differently where I the coach...probably used it as a learning experience. Required him to apologize to the teammate and the team, something along those lines, rather than booting him. The fact that he wrote poetry is really an aside. Would it been any different if he had written an essay in an expository writing class ripping another student, athlete or not? Of course not. This was inappropriate. The punishment might have been over the top, but so was the poem.

You are free to say whatever you want - you are just not free from the consequences of what you say.

 

[upstater]

It's unbelievable that 4 people responded to this thread against the kid. He was not only kicked off the team (I have no comment there) but suspended from school.

For handing in an assignment on expression. He wrote a poem. Then was suspended.

You all don't think that is absolutely wrong?

 

[SubbaBub]

It's unbelievable that 4 people responded to this thread against the kid. He was not only kicked off the team (I have no comment there) but suspended from school.

For handing in an assignment on expression. He wrote a poem. Then was suspended.

You all don't think that is absolutely wrong?

I think it's an all too common abuse of power by small minded people insecure about their own competence.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

I suspect this will go down the lines splitting conservatives and liberals.

 

[RioDog]

There once was a man from Nantucket...

 

[partial]

Kicked off the team, maybe I could see how there could be cause for that. But it seems like he was suspended for hurting the coach's(and maybe his son's) feelings.

 

[BlueMAB]

He should have been suspended for a quarter, maybe a half. Kicked off the team and suspended from school? That is insane.

 

[CTMike]

Severe over reaction/over punishment.

 

[noeynox]

I don't think he should have been suspended or kicked off, but writing that is being an extremely poor teammate. You win together, you lose together. Every player on a losing team thinks things would be different if only they got the ball. If anything, the they should have had him man up and face his team, and gotten their reactions, but with hs kids it could get out of hand if the adults coaches can't monitor that accordingly.

 

[Chin Diesel]

It's unbelievable that 4 people responded to this thread against the kid. He was not only kicked off the team (I have no comment there) but suspended from school.

For handing in an assignment on expression. He wrote a poem. Then was suspended.

You all don't think that is absolutely wrong?

You can thank a combination of zero tolerance school boards, school lawyers and school administrators.

Federal and state courts have consistently shown that high school students have less freedom of expression then college students. It is also probably clearly written out in the Student Handbook. Bottom line is the kid chose to do something that wasn't a gray area and left the decision up to somebody outside of himself.

 

[Carl Spackler]

There once was a man from Nantucket...

Who sailed his rigging to Thailand's great city of Phuket.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

You can thank a combination of zero tolerance school boards, school lawyers and school administrators.

Federal and state courts have consistently shown that high school students have less freedom of expression then college students. It is also probably clearly written out in the Student Handbook. Bottom line is the kid chose to do something that wasn't a gray area and left the decision up to somebody outside of himself.

I kind of think the punishment was a little severe, but I'm also finding it difficult to have sympathy for the kid.

 

[BG79]

I can understand being kicked off the team as frankly insulting the coach and a player on it in a very public and personal manner is probably something that can't be healed. What I take exception with though is why on earth is he suspended from school? Calling that hazing is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[freescooter]

I agree with Jimmy. Suppose the assignment wasn't a poem but an essay and he had written "X was a coward and who was afraid to take a hit, was a lousy football player and he only gets to play because his father is the coach. We all hate him. " You just wouldn't do that and it wouldn't be acceptable to submit as part of an assignment to savage another student. My thought is that really this was mishandled by the teacher then then the coach. Probably should have returned the paper and told the kid that this is really not an appropriate thing to submit. You wouldn't accept a paper like that. Use it as a learning experience for the kid, have him rewrite the thing expressing his frustrations in a more acceptable way. Then the coach over-reacted too. As i said if it got this far, and I really don't think it should have, the coach really needs to sit him down, explain the difference between appropriate public behavior and inappropriate behavior, maybe have him apologize to the other player and move on. these guys always talk about how they are teachers as well as coaches. Here was a chance to teach.

there are several things that aren't real clear in this report. he "performed" it? Does that mean he read it in class? Or in front of the whole school? Was it reviewed/graded first? All those things play into it I guess. But bottom line, it was really inappropriate but also there was likely an over-reaction.

I'd consider myself pretty liberal, but there are things which are just not appropriate.

 

[SubbaBub]

I agree with Jimmy. Suppose the assignment wasn't a poem but an essay and he had written "X was a coward and who was afraid to take a hit, was a lousy football player and he only gets to play because his father is the coach. We all hate him. " You just wouldn't do that and it wouldn't be acceptable to submit as part of an assignment to savage another student. My thought is that really this was mishandled by the teacher then then the coach. Probably should have returned the paper and told the kid that this is really not an appropriate thing to submit. You wouldn't accept a paper like that. Use it as a learning experience for the kid, have him rewrite the thing expressing his frustrations in a more acceptable way. Then the coach over-reacted too. As i said if it got this far, and I really don't think it should have, the coach really needs to sit him down, explain the difference between appropriate public behavior and inappropriate behavior, maybe have him apologize to the other player and move on. these guys always talk about how they are teachers as well as coaches. Here was a chance to teach.

there are several things that aren't real clear in this report. he "performed" it? Does that mean he read it in class? Or in front of the whole school? Was it reviewed/graded first? All those things play into it I guess. But bottom line, it was really inappropriate but also there was likely an over-reaction.

I'd consider myself pretty liberal, but there are things which are just not appropriate.

While I am admittedly not current on school liability when it comes to managing student behavior, but I would lean toward considering the subject of the essay in grading the assignment. A teaching moment if you will on the societal costs of free expression and the propriety of taking cowardly shots at people, authority figures or not. If I am the coach, I'd use the opportunity to a) find out what this kid has under the hood stamina-wise if you get my drift and b) not allow myself to be outsmarted by a kid. I mean you are in child development and you can't handle a little third hand back talk?

Every now and then I come across an eager beaver junior associtate type who thinks he has it all figured out. They quickly learn otherwise. Either they learn something and grow or they expose themselves as someone no longer worth keeping around. Throwing a tantrum by kicking him off the team or suspending someone for a non-violent (including verbal abuse) show an extreme weakness in leadership skills. Not exactly what you are looking for in a Coach or an Administrator.

 

[FAIRTIDES]

Suspension from school seems way over-the-top. Looks to me like FB might be swinging too heavy a stick in his part of Ohio. Hell, maybe it's his teacher's comment on the quality of the Poem. He ain't Dylan Thomas. Not even Allen Ginsberg.

 

[Jimdish255]

It's unbelievable that 4 people responded to this thread against the kid. He was not only kicked off the team (I have no comment there) but suspended from school.

For handing in an assignment on expression. He wrote a poem. Then was suspended.




You all don't think that is absolutely wrong?

100%. They're basically saying public criticism or dissent of any authority figure gets you suspended. People only get that insecure when the message has merit.

 

[Chin Diesel]

The kid gave the principal the opening to interpret the language as intentional harassment.

Playing devil's advocate would it be okay if the poem was written about a fat band player calling him lazy and accused the band director of playing favorites?

Seems to be an undercurrent of "football players should toughen up".

 

[RioDog]

Who sailed his rigging to Thailand's great city of Phuket.

Hunh...not the version i was familiar with...

 

[DarthGrumpy]

I coach my son’s youth soccer team and from day 1 I have told him when we are on the field, I am your Coach, not your Dad. It’s tough. He is young, just 7, and has not been perfect with this ‘rule;’ but, he has tried his best and that’s all I can ask for.

As for this case, the Coach has the discretion as to who is on and who is off the team for better or worse. The poem does not appear to be a threat, just a commentary. If taken to court over the suspension, the school will likely lose.

 

[freescooter]

100%. They're basically saying public criticism or dissent of any authority figure gets you suspended. People only get that insecure when the message has merit.

No no no...to me it's the obvious criticism of another student that's the real issue. If he wrote an essay instead of a poem criticizing another student, that wouldn't be acceptable either. And he wasn't critical of the other kid's views on student government or something. He basically called the kid out in public and in writing. It really isn't acceptable. As chin diesel said, if he had written something similar about a band member, saying she was fat and slovenly and couldn't play, that would be just as unacceptable, though it wouldn't have been in the news, I suspect. This was the kind of thing you say among your friends, maybe to your parents. You don't write it as a class assignment and then read it aloud. Is it worthy of a suspension? Probably not. Worthy of kicking someone off the football team? Again, probably not. Worthy of having somebody sit the kid down and explain why something is inappropriate? Absolutely.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

The kid is a . The coach's son, who is the target of the rant, is playing football at Akron next year. Hard to believe his playing time is due to his father being the coach. 4 day suspension? Sorry, no sympathy.