Photo of ax-wielding linemen sacked

Sun Times ^ | Rummana Hussain

[endthematrix]

It was a harmless gesture intended to showcase the Batavia High School varsity football team's brawn, and playfully instill fear in their competitors.

But given the rising violence in America's schools, some felt that a poster depicting senior athletes gripping knives, sledgehammers, crowbars and axes crossed the line.

The Batavia High School board recently stopped further publication of the glossy Batavia Bulldogs picture and urged businesses to take the "Fighting for the Conference Title" posters down, after fielding several complaints from the community. The posters began circulating in May.

"We need to be sensitive in today's society with all things that go on," school board President Ron Link said Thursday.

Batavia High School athletic director and football coach Mike Gaspari claimed full responsibility for the "poor judgment" since he approved the student-selected theme for the poster.

'Meant to be fun'

None of the eight boys posing with weapons had bad intentions when they took the picture last spring with four other teammates pictured without weapons, Gaspari said.

"It's just a high school football poster meant to be fun," he said.

Still, Gaspari said he understood the concerns.

"I'm sure they're [athletes] not happy, but they do understand how someone may have thought it was inappropriate," he said.

There are no plans for a retake.

For the last 21 years, the far west suburban school has produced a poster with top senior offensive and defensive linemen -- players who are often overlooked, Gaspari said.

Last year, football players received endless compliments for their "Braveheart" themed posters, which featured costumed athletes holding swords, school officials said. "Braveheart" is an R-rated Mel Gibson movie filled with gruesome images of brutal medieval warfare.

"I guess when people looked at this year's poster, they related to it more negatively," Link said.

[iconoclast]

Let me put it this way, did anyone here ever have a coach this stupid?

[festus]

Yup. Grown men and women regularly wearing helmets for a leisurly ride on their bicycles in the park near my house show it for me.

Can you imagine a cowboy wearing a helmet to ride a horse ?

[endthematrix]

I told my wife about this and she (ever slightly) convinced me that this was idiotic to shoot this poster. She did mention that recently this school and a rival did have a big brawl over sports. That slapped me back into reality about school violence and the messages we want to send to our kids. She focused on the knife wielder, while I focused on the sledgehammer. Obviously those invoke two very different thoughts.

I guess I'm old skool (but only 32) where I believe the perception of this doesn't meet reality. Tough guys showing off strength holding implements of strength is understandable. The knife thing is curious, my wife and I agreed. My wife said, "Are they trying to say we're going to stab you?" In a (harmless and fictitious) way, YES!. This is sport, and unfortunately, the forces of overbearing parents and schools have taken it taken to a higher more dangerous level.

If the team was wearing Grim Reaper outfits or holding hangman nooses, the implication would be the same but perceicved in a more harmless light. WHY?