School board’s decision hurts kids | Letter

Published 4:38 pm Monday, August 13, 2012

Picture this: as a member of a sports team for Orcas Island School District who has to abide by the athletic policy handbook (rowers are exempt), you decide to attend an event with several of your schoolmates.  During the course of the evening, alcoholic beverages are noted to be present, and consumed by some.

Under the old handbook, your presence at this event is not allowed, and should your presence become known to the enforcers of the rules, you would be suspended from that activity for the remainder of the season.

Under the new handbook, your presence at this event, or one of its type, is permissible. You could plead that you were only there as a designated driver (thereby certifying you did not imbibe).  Never mind that your age-cohort friends were imbibing illegally, and that your mere presence lends tacit approval to an illegal action on their part.  If your reason for presence at the event was to be “just standing by to drive someone home who was drinking,” and that person happened to be a teammate, what does that reveal about your own character?

We are concerned about the lowering of standards in a time when the entire citizenry needs more than ever to be held to a high standard.  This is not the time to allow the dumbing down of expectations among youth. I guess the first offense of DUI in adults should be excused as well, no matter what happens – unless we can enlist our youth to drive us home as well.

I was gratified to see that Mari had written a response which echoed my own sentiments about the change. I applaud her work on the committee, and am dismayed that the board chose to make a change that only serves to ‘dumb down’ the expectations adults make of youth.

A ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card is not the answer and does not promote the character which should be instilled by caring adults, most notably by example. This is a bad example, and a bad precedent. It places extraordinary pressure on the youth, who now can lend tacit approval to their teammates’ illegal behavior simply by being present. Far better to have those youth mentioned for their lack of attendance, which might provoke some reflection among the participants!

Bea vonTobel

Orcas Island