The Courts Or The Fans Will Take Care Of Errant Athletes
It’s fine with Allan LeTourneau of Spokane if Washington State University football coach Mike Price doesn’t punish co-captain James Darling over his recent arrest.
“Since when is a squeaky clean record a mandate for higher education? I commend Coach Price for letting the courts administer the penalties,” said LeTourneau.
“If there’s a school violation, the school should deal with it; if there’s a team violation, the coach should handle the discipline”
Meanwhile, WSU basketball coach Kevin Eastman, who kicked starter Donminic Ellison off his team, “can recruit Sunday school boys and see how competitive that will make the Cougars,” LeTourneau added.
The ultimate disciplinarian for Darling, Ellison and a growing class of inflated athletic egos is the fan, suggests Paula Campbell of Spokane.
“These days,” says Campbell, “sports destroys character (or stunts its development) the moment a recruiter approaches a young athlete with promises of contracts and millions.
“We should not be surprised, therefore, that young athletes today are behaving the same way that movie stars have behaved since movie stardom became a goal - with arrogance and an attitude that the paying public exists to keep them in drugs and alcohol.”
What’s a parent to do?
Spokane parent Cora Glass has been involved with both the PTA and a PTG.
The PTA, she points out, has national backing and proven policies that assure democratic procedures and financial accountability.
Members of a PTG, however, pay dues and raise funds for their school, “but only the five or six members of the executive board decide how the monies are spent.
“After two years of PTG membership, I’m saving my dues,” she said. “Too bad more people weren’t educated on the benefits of a PTA before the local office had to disband.”
Share the wealth
Spokane native Jim Nelson says developers who are “cashing in on the city’s growth should be at least partially responsible for what they are developing. This would include planning for parks, streets and schools.”
Homeowners should share those costs, Nelson believes, but that means they also “should have shared the refunds on an equal basis” when the county returned the impact fees developers had paid for two years.
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