Administrators and the board of education at Richfield Springs Central School made the right decision, last week, when they decided the three players on the football team who violated the extracurricular/athletic contract did not serve their suspension when the team forfeited its game against Waterville. While this was an unpopular decision with players, coaches and parents, the school has the responsibility to uphold the contract and make sure underage drinking by students is not tolerated. Since members of the contract committee were present at last Wednesday’s school board meeting and said it was their intent for players to sit out a game played, the school must carry out that punishment, no matter how unpopular that decision is. What caused many people’s anger was the fact that the contract doesn’t clearly say the suspension must include a game that is actually played. A forfeit is a game that counts. Richfield Springs was officially defeated by Waterville, 1-0. Members of the football team, coaches and parents were under the assumption that the forfeited game counted as the players’ suspension. Assistant Principal and Athletic Director TheriJo Climenhaga said she talked to other coaches and they said forfeits and snow days do not count toward a suspension. If that’s true, then RSCS officials have to carry out the suspension. Besides parents and legal guardians, a school has the most responsibility for teaching our children what is right and wrong. Underage drinking is a serious issue, and the school must show it will not be tolerated. Perhaps a revision should be added to the contract that clarifies a suspension only counts during an actual game played, so that, should this occur again, there is no confusion. The school also made the right decision to propose a compromise that allowed the team to play Saturday’s game against Oriskany. The contract allows for an extracurricular appeals council to make exceptions to the rules in cases of extraordinary circumstances. Since the football team only has 21 players on the roster and a few players can’t play due to injury, if the three athletes served their suspension at the same time, the Oriskany game could have been forfeited as well. New York State law requires that 16 players must be in uniform for a high school football contest. The superintendent of schools and the board of education are in the appeals chain of command. They have the authority to review the suspension. RSCS officials allowed two of the suspended players to sit out Saturday’s game, and the other will sit out this weekend’s game against Dolgeville. The administration and the board of education realized it was unfair to penalize the whole team by making it forfeit another game. They also realized this constituted an extraordinary circumstance. The school officials made the best decision possible. Those three players violated a contract that they signed and should not be allowed to play while their team is on the field. However, the entire team should not have to continually throw away the football season, so the staggered suspensions was the right choice.
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