Monthly Archives: April 2008

Sports Give Me Hope Sometimes

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I’m biased on this one since the Good Samaritans upon whom this article centers are from my alma mater, but this is one of those stories that makes me feel wonderful about how athletics transcend competition and actually represent the best in people.

In a dream-come-true scenario, a senior Western Oregon batter named Sara Tucholsky hit her first home run. Then, a nightmarish situation arose when she suffered a catastrophic knee injury near first base. If her own teammates were to touch her, she would be called out, and if she was replaced the batter would have had to remain at first base according to the umpires at the game. Instead, two Central Washington University players, one of whom is an all-star player, scooped her up and helped her tag the remaining bases en route to a 4-2 Western Oregon playoff-deciding victory. That’s honor and sportsmanship!

Tolerance Wins!

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Thousands of high schools around the country participate in the Day of Silence each year, which includes my own high school. However, in my state the bulk of the media’s attention centered on Mt. Si High School because Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond, called for 1,000 “prayer warriors” to protest Day of Silence. He reasoned that “We’re against giving an entire school day to one club to push an agenda that is not about education.”

Only 80 protesters showed up. Tolerance wins that battle.

I would counter that he is wrong on two counts: Day of Silence is not about a club (i.e. GSA clubs) pushing a non-education agenda, and Day of Silence is all about education. It centers on tolerance, tells students everyone deserves a voice, opposes harassment, and challenges bullying and name-calling. Are these not aspects of a typical civics class? Also, contrary to common beliefs, it does not promote a lifestyle; it’s about equality and tolerance.

One note of sadness for me is that 1/3 of the students were absent, including 85 athletes (a group often the source of homophobic bullying).

Still, I would say that the Day of Silence is gaining acceptance and more students are seeing that it is a day of tacitly shouting out a resounding “no” to abusive behaviors. Their silence becomes a loud call to all to understand that everyone deserves a voice.

While a few students in my high school wrote homophobic remarks on t-shirts to protest, overall my school was quite supportive. We did not have an unusual number of absences, and no major incidents were reported. I am proud of the participants and those who, even if they disagreed, respected others’ beliefs and supported the participants’ First Amendment rights to speak and be heard. Even if they must be heard in silence.

Common Sense

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Sometimes sports do reflect the general state of education, and this week is no exception. As Craig Smith notes, two possible WIAA state sports rules could be created and:

could be called “Archbishop Murphy Rules.” One would suspend a student who played with an expired physical but NOT the team for the number of games the athlete played. The other proposal would allow leagues the leeway not to penalize a team that used an ineligible participant because of an inadvertent error.

This rule change is being spurred on because Archbishop Murphy had a single player ruled ineligible when the school self-reported an expired physical, which resulted in the undefeated football team forced out of the state 2A playoffs. Normally, an ineligible player is a star and keeping a team afloat, thus the rule; however, in this case Terry Ennis, the head coach and athletic director, “was terminally ill when the physical lapsed and died days later.” The WIAA would not make any exception for the catastrophic and extraordinary circumstances.

Rick Reilly ridiculed the decision in a Sports Illustrated article saying:

The smallest-brained crustaceans are water fleas. The smallest-brained parasites are flatworms. And the smallest-brained mammals are the men and women who run high-school athletics in the state of Washington.

This mirrors decisions made in education in general. Instead of looking at cases, incidents, and behaviors in context or on a case by case basis, blanket rules and regulations are frequently made to expedite processes. Of course, justice is not always ensured and cases such as the Archbishop one penalize the innocent and do not look at mitigating circumstances. Behavior issues are an easy example of this, but there are others in the typical school day setting such as homework completion, arguments, policy making, and so on.

Here’s to hoping that more authorities, including teachers, look at cases one at a time and consider the context of situations rather than relying on blanket, black and white policies. The intents of precedents may be lost in meting out versions of justice if we do not take the time to administer decisions individually.