Ever read the original Friday Night Lights? If so, you know what measures Texas high school football coaches will take to keep their best players eligible. The book--the movie--the television series--why have they been so popular?
That's an easy one: it ain't just Texas.
The issue of coddling football players reared its ugly head last week in Dorchester County District 2, a school district best known for the prowess of its Summerville High School football team. However, the Fort Dorchester High School team set its own records during the last school year. Who could quarrel with that?
A perfect storm of coincidences has revealed the duplicity of football athletes' grades in a required biology class taught by an assistant football coach. You see, usually when parents or students see special treatment of athletes in the classroom, they keep silent, not wanting to snitch or make their lives miserable for the rest of high school. In this case, the complainant and his parents, who most likely moved into DD2 because of its academic reputation and lower housing prices than Mt. Pleasant, are moving to Charlotte for the next school year, thus avoiding repercussions. One parent is (gasp!) a community activist.
Thanks to the Mouzon family, the principal and football coaches at Fort Dorchester (and other local high schools) will become more circumspect about keeping players eligible--at least in the short run. Does anyone believe that an assistant football coach took it upon himself to provide football players with higher grades? How gullible are you?
As long as most parents think football championships are more important than learning, this situation will remain endemic.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment