by Kent Sterling
Does a school corporation punish a kid – or anyone – for a reason other than to avoid fallout? Administrators hate noise, and a little locker room profanity aired on Fox 59 brought noise. The punishment went to the head football coach whose staff left the kids to celebrate alone.
That celebration included a video that featured the team singing and dancing to a popular song that included some profanity. Oh the humanity!
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The video (since pulled) went viral, so tonight Pike plays minus head coach Derek Moyers, who has been suspended for one game.
If coaches should have learned anything from the Carmel basketball team bus fiasco a few years ago it’s that high school athletes should be monitored by adults. In this case, the consequence was a video showing teens swearing.
There used to be a time when adults had the stones to say, “Stop your whining. Kids swear. Get over yourselves.” Not now. Not as Fox 59 can’t wait to build a screwy non-news story around a video.
People like to watch hormone fueled mayhem after a win that reinforces the notion among the elderly that the world is going to hell in a hand basket, and that kids today have lost all respect for decency.
Fox 59 reporter Yvone Man even went so far as to hunt down an expert on sensitivity who blames the culture for the bad words used in the video. Jimmelyn Rice is the founder of Girls Nite In International said, “It’s not acceptable and it’s not appropriate, but in this culture it’s okay. The stakes are so high because there are no lines of respect drawn for these kids.”
I didn’t have any idea what that meant when she said it on Fox 59, and I am even more puzzled now. Evidently, she sees the teen experience as wrought with potholes everywhere, and that profanity is a gateway to God knows what.
Growing up, I was told things like “Get over yourself!”, “Don’t take life so seriously!”, and “Shut up!” All great pieces of advice.
The problem with school administrators, the media, and parents way too wrapped up in their kids feelings is that it’s a zero-tolerance world, kids aren’t allowed to breathe, and when they finally do, a coach needs to be punished.
There are actions that require real consequences. Dancing and swearing is not among them. Moyers’ suspension is a massive overreaction to a problem that doesn’t exist, made an issue by a media outlet that craves viewers.
The only teaching moment here is that the people responsible for meting out this punishment learned that they aren’t capable of dealing like adults with hypersensitive and twitchy dolts too willing to pick up a phone to complain.
So much for “viral.” I can’t find the video, or even find out what song they were singing. This whole thing is ridiculous.
The video was pulled. No idea on the song.
Ill take hypocrisy for $400, Alex.
Does Yvone Man want to punctuate her piece with a side by side comparison of Fox broadcast product? If her concern is cultural degradation, perhaps she’d like to personally crusade to restrict not just Pikes kids, but all US children 18 and under, from watching FX channel.
But that might effect ratings.