Area first-round high school football playoff games on Wednesday night were held minus several players.
You might have heard about it, especially if you’re a student, a fan or a parent. We carried a brief mention of the suspensions Wednesday morning on the sports page in advances on area games involving Carthage and Webb City. School disciplinary policies are keeping a Carthage player and three Webb City players off the field. It’s possible that other schools are also dealing with similar problems.
Violations of school citizenship policies, unfortunately, occur frequently. School administrators don’t release names because, legally, they can’t. We don’t name students, because, frankly, in cases like these we’d prefer to err on the side of caution.
Nor do we think it’s fair to name football players just because they are in the limelight. The same policies apply to students in ANY extracurricular activity. For example, we don’t publish the names of kids who have to sit out a debate tournament because they broke a school policy.
We do, however, name names when charges have been filed and the offender is not a juvenile.
The Missouri State High School Activities Association is the governing body for all high school activities throughout the state. It provides general guidelines for school districts concerning citizenship standards. Generally, district administrators and school boards set their own policies.
But in some states, school districts all operate under the same policies. Get caught violating code, you’ll sit out six weeks, or six games, whatever comes first.
We would suggest area school administrators consider adopting the same standards when it involves suspending a student from a game, a band concert or an FFA conference.
It would put everyone on an even playing field.
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