Time was, if a group of high school athletes was caught having a beer or two around a bonfire, the matter would have been handled quickly and quietly. The coach would have told the kids to show up at the practice field on a weekend morning and ordered them to run wind sprints until their tongues lolled. Or maybe he would have pulled out a paddle and given them five whacks. Word of both events – the drinking and the discipline – would have spread quickly through the school and the community, and everyone would have had a good laugh. That would have been the end of it. No more.
Nowadays, paddles are mostly outlawed and school officials less inclined to act decisively. Events surrounding an underage drinking episode that involved some football players from Signal Mountain Middle-High School prove that. Though rumors about the players and the drinking swept across the mountaintop community early last week, there was no immediate public response to them by school officials. That came later – after the team won the Class 2A state championship with a 56-28 victory over Trinity Christian Academy.
That’s the problem. Though the drinking occurred a week before the game, there was no confirmation of it until afterwards. In addition, changing statements about the event understandably prompted public questions about a possible cover-up and favoritism to athletes.
Signal Mountain Principal Tom McCullough, for instance, confirmed the incident and the football players’ involvement on Monday, stating that the way the matter was handled “smacks of cover-up all the way around. It looks like nothing was done and that’s not right.” By Tuesday, however, McCullough changed his tune.
He told a student assembly that he regretted using the term “cover-up,” saying he wished he had chosen his words more carefully. Football coach Bill Price was equally wishy-washy. He initially said that he didn’t know anything about the incident. Later, however, he admitted that a player told him about the citations. Such responses aren’t helpful. They confuse rather than defuse the situation.