Posted on 11/08/2001 6:27:45 AM PST by Fintan
FORT WORTH, Texas - Girl volleyball players at a Fort Worth middle school were asked by their coaches to play a game of "strip serve" volleyball, which school administrators criticized as inappropriate after some parents complained. During the drill, held Sept. 21 at the Gene Pike Middle School gym, two girls took their shirts off and one girl may have taken off her shorts, district officials said. Three female coaches supervised the 22 eighth-graders while they played the game, which required that team members take off shoes, socks, kneepads or hair accessories if a player missed a serve. After a few girls took it upon themselves to undress further, the drill was immediately stopped, administrators said. The drill should have never been conducted, Northwest Independent School District Superintendent Keith Sockwell said on Monday. "I thought it was the most stupid thing I ever heard. You just don't do things like that," he said. An investigation began after several parents complained about the activity. Statements were taken from the players and the coaches, officials said. The girls' written statements indicated that, for the most part, they were not upset about the game, Pike Principal Kyle Copp said. The coaches were "remorseful," he said. The three coaches, whom the district declined to name, are still employed, Deputy Superintendent Ron Hibbs said. Some parents said that even though the coaches apologized to the players, they should have been punished. "It's an appalling story," said the mother of a Pike volleyball player, who asked that her name not be used. "They got no reprimand for this that the kids could see. Nobody sees that there's consequences to bad choices." Said another: "I think it was an error in judgment, and that's all it was - plain and simple." |
My husband says I'm beautiful... but for a long time I felt insecure because-- yeah, he thought it was ok like most guys, to indulge those eyes. (And I never knew about it, but I still felt the effects on his attitude.) In the past year or so we have been working on this, and he finally realizes how it cheats me and hurts me deeply, and I have never felt more secure and loved than I do now. There are benefits, guys, to making sure your wife feels secure and loved and as if she is the only beautiful woman in the world to you. GET IT??? ;-)
Don't get me wrong, my husband is not a sleazy guy... he's just normal in that, and learning to get over it. heh. He's a gem in everything else though. Well, he's a little airheaded... but...
You guys have me doing a LOT of introspection here. I guess I'm doing my best to 'defend' the coaches simply because I am uneasy with the idea that simple mistakes could mandate a firing. Now, I'm the LAST person who will say that anyone is 'entitled' to a job position... and I'm a STRONG advocate for getting rid of lousy or incompetent teachers... but I'd like just a little more information on their history, on their intent, or from their viewpoint before joining in the "burn 'em" chorus.
Some mistake necessitate an immediate expulsion... but a well-defined game that the kids took too far shouldn't be one of them. (If they hadn't included the protective gear, I'd be happier, though.) I make up games for my kids or my athletes to play all the time... and they sometimes get overly exuberant, competitive, or physical (usually in more rugged ways, not sensual). This thread gets me a little defensive as it makes me worry that I could be on even more uncertain ground, and less likely to introduce fun activities into practices and occasional classes.
Unless you are blind, you see a lot of things as you go through life. There is the moon, the stars, the trees, and the people around you. What is your point here?
You're not so bad yourself!
Ditto.
Just another reason for home education.
Shalom.
You have got to be kidding me. It's not "outrageous behavior?"
Are you telling us that teachers -- be they neophytes or veteran -- need to be told not to induce children to take off their clothes in class as part of an exercise?
Where in heck are you from where adults that ask that unrelated teenage girls take off their clothes for fun aren't suspected of doing so for prurient interests? Why should parents be satisfied with less than termination of not one, not two, but three people entrusted with the care and instruction of impressionable pubescent teenage girls who don't even have the common sense necessary to know this was a ridiculous idea?
Worst of all, you're blaming the girls for taking it "too far." "Too far" for what? Isn't the idea of "strip ANYTHING" to potentially strip completely to the delight and amusement of all participants? Have you forgotten whose idea it was for the girls to strip in the first place?
Have you been a teacher so long you have forgotten what parents expect of teachers? Have you been working in the cannery so long you can't recognize when something smells fishy?
What is WRONG with you?
The principal and school board have to make that call, not a judge.
Parents should decide. We're the customers.
I make up games for my kids or my athletes to play all the time... and they sometimes get overly exuberant, competitive, or physical (usually in more rugged ways, not sensual). This thread gets me a little defensive as it makes me worry that I could be on even more uncertain ground, and less likely to introduce fun activities into practices and occasional classes.
I've been a coach, so I know the feeling. But failing to fire these coaches casts a shadow on you and other coaches and teachers. Teachers might make mistakes on occasion, and that's fine if corrected. But teachers' and coaches' behavior should be above reproach.
We can't say that here, no way.
That is the point, Don. We do see things.
Here's a funny story about something my dad saw. WWII vet; married 45 years; 11 kids later.
He was taking us children to church one Sunday. A lady on the street where the church was located was mowing her lawn. She was wearing shorts and a bikini top. As she bent over to get the mowings, her top fell off. My dad ran into the curb.
The point is, yes, we notice things. I was being sarcastic.
Three female coaches supervised the 22 eighth-graders while they played the game, which required that team members take off shoes, socks, kneepads or hair accessories if a player missed a serve. After a few girls took it upon themselves to undress further, the drill was immediately stopped, administrators said.
Obviously, the students didn't need further encouragement from their coaches!!
Point taken. That's certainly a matter for their parents to deal with.
I'm saying that the girls shouldn't have gotten the initial encouragement from the teachers.
Nothing personal, but it sounds to me as if you merely transferred, to your husband, the inadequacies you felt about your own attractiveness. In other words, you made your problem his problem by focusing on his behavior (quite natural, by the way) rather than your reaction to it.He happens to look at another woman and you feel cheated? Good God, Terriergal, unless your husband's eyes were popping out of his skull like a Tex Avery cartoon every time a dolled-up tart walked down the street, you've set the "cheating" bar pretty damn low. Unrealistically low.
I was hoping it was a new Olympic contest.
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