Posted on 11/05/2001 10:45:02 AM PST by Constitution Day
Nov 5, 2001
DUNLAP, Ill. (AP) - One by one, the subjects were led into a room and hooked up to a polygraph machine. The purpose: to determine whether the teen-agers violated Dunlap High School's code of conduct by attending a party where alcohol was consumed. Seven of the 10 students who submitted to the lie detector exams - all of them football players - flunked the questioning last month and were barred from competing in the first round of the state playoffs. Some of their parents wept when they learned their children had lied to them. Dunlap High went to extraordinary lengths to get to the bottom of what was otherwise a routine case of teen-agers getting into trouble. School Superintendent Bill Collier said it was the right thing to do to sort the guilty from the innocent: "It may look bad, it may sound bad, but it's the fairest way." The investigation began after police broke up a party Oct. 6. Nobody was arrested, but officers took down the names of everyone present and traced the registration of all cars parked there. Their list of 15 athletes was turned over to school officials. Three students admitted guilt when confronted. But many others claimed that they had left the party as soon as they realized alcohol was present. So school officials proposed the polygraphs. Two students were suspended from the team after refusing to take the test, and seven more were suspended after flunking. Collier pointed out that three students were cleared who might otherwise have been punished. "For these three kids, this worked exactly the way it is supposed to work," he said. Dunlap High went on to lose the Oct. 27 playoff game 28-7. Mike Griffith, a policy analyst for the Education Commission of the States in Denver, said he has never heard of a school using polygraphs in such a way, and he called it an extreme measure. "But in the end," he said, "if the parents don't file a complaint and the school district is satisfied, it's a done deal." Matt Jones, an attorney who represented the students who took the polygraphs and their parents, said a lawsuit is unlikely, but parents may try to pressure the school board into changing its policy regarding parties. The students' names were not released by the school or Jones. Jones said the suspended players - most of them starters - had greater concerns than the outcome of the game. "Part of the disappointment is the public scrutiny and having their parents disappointed in them," the lawyer said. "With most of them, it's not about their participation but because they let down their team." Some in this central Illinois town of about 1,000 people 12 miles north Peoria have been openly critical of school officials. "You would think they have better things to do," said Mark Wade, a 1979 Dunlap High graduate. Wade said the drinking policy existed when he was in high school, and athletes and others were sometimes questioned about their weekend activities. He said students sometimes lied, and their answers were accepted; nobody gave them a polygraph. "That wouldn't have washed. The parents wouldn't have stood for it," he said. Collier and Jones said that before each polygraph session, held at the school board's offices, the students and their parents were taken aside. The students were asked to describe their actions that night. Before the examinations began, the parents were asked to leave to eliminate distractions. Afterward, the polygraph examiner went over results with the students and their parents. Collier described the scene as sad, with some parents shedding tears as they realized their children had lied to them and the school. The superintendent said getting the truth was more important than a football playoff game. "I do know kids and adults can't continue to tell lies," he said. "Parents need to do more communicating with their kids on real-life issues and find out what they're doing on weekends." AP-ES-11-05-01 1424EST This story can be found at : http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAJWH4OOTC.htmlIllinois High School Uses Lie Detectors to Get to the Bottom of a Drinking Scandal
By Jay Hughes
Associated Press Writer
CD
This is what is known as "government intrusion".
My daughter is *way* too young for me to even be worried about this.
However, I hope my wife & I can raise her so that she can be trusted with a night out... and to tell the truth.
I was certainly no angel in high school, but my parents knew where I was & who I was with 99% of the time.
Bump for that!
Too, 'polygraphy' is junk science (think voodoo) at best & to punish a kid for refusing to submit to it is ridiculous.
Just my .02
-bc
First, the three students who were honest were not suspended. They were honest and took their punishment, and they are the better for it.
Second, this sounds like the parents were completely informed and aware of what was going on.
Third, we do not know if alcohol abuse was something this particular school has had a hard time confronting. This may have been the result of frustration on the part of the administration.
I would also like to draw attention to the following section:
"Afterward, the polygraph examiner went over results with the students and their parents. Collier described the scene as sad, with some parents shedding tears as they realized their children had lied to them and the school."
Sounds like not only did the kids learn about consquences of actions, but some parents learned the truth of their parenting skills and awareness levels.
This is where the system failed. It was the responsibility of the officers to arrest everyone there or just break up the party. They just passed the buck. (not that I ever went to a party underaged.....)
Since when is taking a polygraph test a pre-requisite to paticipating in high school sports? If the authorities didn't have hard proof that a particular kid was breaking the rules, then they should be forced to back off.
It sure sounds like lots of fun, doesn't it?. Peeing in a cup to play sports or do extracurricular activities, having to to abide by non-sensical curfew laws, school dress codes that don't let you even have logos on your clothes, parental advisory stickers or the equivalent on everything, helmet laws for bicycle riders and skateboarders, etc, etc. Whatever happened to letting kids live a little?
We're raising a generation of either rebels or robots and 15 years from now we'll wonder why they're so screwed up.
ASB, I hope I never have to get to that point.
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