Principal suspends football player, calls him a bully for POEM about losing team

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

http://news.yahoo.com/principal-suspends-football-player-calls-him-bully-poem-043403341.html On Friday, at Rittman High School just outside of Akron, Ohio, junior Nick Andre’s composition class assignment was to write a poem about something that makes him mad.

Andre, who plays for Rittman’s 1-7 football team, chose to vent his anger about the team’s disappointing season, reports Cleveland Fox affiliate WJW.

“I got told to write a poem and I did,” the defensive end explained.

Here’s a snippet of the poem, entitled “Stupid”:


Losing season

Favoritism

Nonstop passes from best friend to best friend

Continuously doing what doesn’t work

Another few lines go:


Dropped passes but yet still the superstar

Yeah, right

Where’s my scholarship?

I can drop passes

Rittman has suffered some heartbreaking losses — a 14-13 heartbreaker against Smithville, for example — and a few blowouts. The team’s lone win came in 41-39 thriller against a Grove City Christian.

Andre said he had to read his lament in class, which he did.

Next, he ended up suspended for four days and kicked off the football team for the remainder of the season.

Rittman High’s principal — Nick Evans, according to the school district website — charged that Andre, 16, “wrote a mean and disrespectful poem about another student and our athletic director/head coach.” He characterized the assigned poem as “hazing, harassment.”

Julie Andre, Nick’s mother, met with the principal on Monday.

“All he could refer to was bullying,” she told WJW. “This poem was bullying. And my comment was, ‘Why would the teacher entertain this assignment, you know, because you don’t know what you may get from teenage kids. So, to me, I couldn’t understand bullying.”

The angry mother declined to sign her son’s letter of suspension.

Her suspended son was equally frustrated.

“Who am I harassing or hazing?” he asked. “I mean, I didn’t state any names.”

Andre also observed that the suspension could negatively affect his academic career.

“It’s like wow, just over doing my school work, I get in trouble, get thrown off the football team, you know, get suspended for four days, which could potentially really mess up my grades,” he told WJW.

The Fox station also interviewed Avery Friedman, a Cleveland attorney who specializes in civil rights. Friedman called Andre’s poem “a little short on Iambic pentameter” but stressed his belief that the principal violated the junior’s First Amendment rights.

Both the Rittman school district superintendent and the Rittman High football coach have refused to speak to local press thus far.
So when did free speech die in schools or school assignments have to pass a school suspension policy? What if he had wrote on a school assignment how he hope Obama dies from cancer! Hell, they'd probably suspended him forever and tried to have him arrested! By this we get to see the total intolerance of the liberals and their policies/actions. A poem is the ultimate expression of one's feelings and now they are to be tailored to meet liberal policies.

[QUOTE] I find such insanity to be insanely blind. A total waste and twisting of the human mind. To punish our sincere views that we write. Should make us one and all want to fight. Never fear that too has been denied. Driven out by those who lied. How far will a free people let this go? When it's too late perhaps we will know. Bide your time by prepping for righteous action . Against this insane , dictatorial faction. God help us we should all pray. A correction surely cometh , woe be that day. -TYR

[fj1200]

I don't think free speech ever ruled in schools, primary at least, and I can imagine that he broke some sort of team rule or the honor code. Playing football is a privilege not a right, unless your best friends with the QB of course. :eek: Calling it hazing/harassment is ridiculous though. He should get an "A" though because he excelled at expressing his feelings, the lefties eat that sort of stuff up.

[CSM]

I don't think free speech ever ruled in schools, primary at least, and I can imagine that he broke some sort of team rule or the honor code. Playing football is a privilege not a right, unless your best friends with the QB of course. :eek: Calling it hazing/harassment is ridiculous though. He should get an "A" though because he excelled at expressing his feelings, the lefties eat that sort of stuff up.

Well, I would say he should get an A+ as his poem evoked enough emotion among the libs to result in suspension. Isn't that what the arts are supposed to do?

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

I don't think free speech ever ruled in schools, primary at least, and I can imagine that he broke some sort of team rule or the honor code. Playing football is a privilege not a right, unless your best friends with the QB of course. :eek: Calling it hazing/harassment is ridiculous though. He should get an "A" though because he excelled at expressing his feelings, the lefties eat that sort of stuff up. Not this time they did not eat it up. Was nothing bullying about it. The student expressed in a poem his "feelings" which is what poetry is. What was done to the student was done to poetry too IMHO. Since when are schools places that ban presenting poetry in a school assignment ? That's right since the socialist/liberal Department of Education was foisted upon us. What they do is set a policy for zero tolerance , say on bullying for example then they can erroneously apply that to students they want to punish for any reason. That is the dictatorial liberal/socialist way that has become all too common in our schools and our government! That student's future life will be severely impacted by this vengeful bullshat action ! The principal should be sued IMHO.-Tyr

[revelarts]

LOL!
That's harassment and hazing?

i think the problem might beee
“wrote a mean and disrespectful poem about another student and our athletic director/head coach.”

I'm guessing but, he's disrespecting athorahta.
In that context I can see the point , but toward other students, ppifff that's a joke. at the least extreme over kill. a few extra laps or push-ups to get the message across on dissing team mates is in order, but suspension, that's ridiculous.

[fj1200]

^^T, I can agree that it's not bullying and that suspension was probably overboard but there are still honor code issues and FB team ramifications to consider.

[Tyr-Ziu Saxnot]

^^T, I can agree that it's not bullying and that suspension was probably overboard but there are still honor code issues and FB team ramifications to consider. The principal used bullying as his justification. Poetry is art and the principal attacked without any true justification both the student and that art. Which says a lot about the very low standards used for hiring/promoting people to be school principals. Apparently the main qualification is to be liberal/socialist/dem and a good bit stupid ! Note that the football coach did not suspend him for 4 days the school principal did.. --Tyr

[glockmail]

Not bullying, disrespect. Deserved disrespect, based on the reaction.

High school athletic departments are notorious breeding grounds of the incompetent who protect their own. I've seen it many times.

[Kathianne]

Smelled a lawsuit with that:

http://www.the-daily-record.com/local%20news/2013/10/24/reversal-in-rittman-student-to-be-reinstated-today


Rittman student to be reinstated following suspension, football team dismissmal Student to be reinstated today By BOBBY WARRENStaff Writer Published:<time datetime="2013-10-24T04:00:00-04:00">October 24, 2013 4:00AM</time>
Nick Andre, a junior on the football team who has been on the honor roll, merit roll and named a student of the month, had been suspended for four days and kicked off the football team after completing an assignment given by a long-term substitute teacher.

[jimnyc]

Perhaps dismissal from the team, or similar... but suspension? The parents should fight this as I see no legitimate reason as to why a suspension is warranted. Writing ones feelings, even if negative about an aspect of the school, shouldn't have someone suspended. And then to label him a bully? While REAL bullies are out there tormenting children? I just read another story over the weekend where parents filed bullying charges against the district - because the others shools football team beat them like 91-0. Sorry, that's an ass kicking on the field, not bullying.

I think all this crap started when kids started getting disciplined/suspended for finger guns and pop tart guns, and parents and teachers saw that it worked. Now all these weenies are complaining about everything and anything that offends them.

[Kathianne]

Perhaps dismissal from the team, or similar... but suspension? The parents should fight this as I see no legitimate reason as to why a suspension is warranted. Writing ones feelings, even if negative about an aspect of the school, shouldn't have someone suspended. And then to label him a bully? While REAL bullies are out there tormenting children? I just read another story over the weekend where parents filed bullying charges against the district - because the others shools football team beat them like 91-0. Sorry, that's an ass kicking on the field, not bullying.

I think all this crap started when kids started getting disciplined/suspended for finger guns and pop tart guns, and parents and teachers saw that it worked. Now all these weenies are complaining about everything and anything that offends them.

Hey, he's been reinstated and suspension reversed, it never happened. He completed the assignment within the parameters. He didn't initiate the assignment and he didn't name anyone, even by first names from what was reported.

I doubt the teacher brought this to the attention of principal, kids started to talk would be my guess and principal over-reacted.

[gabosaurus]

A lot of schools have an honor code for participants in extracurricular activities. Part of it states that the athlete will do nothing that brings dishonor to the team or school. This agreement is usually signed by the students and parents in advance.
If you openly belittle your coaches and teammates, you ARE a bully. Not to mention a sore loser with an attitude problem.

[jimnyc]

A lot of schools have an honor code for participants in extracurricular activities. Part of it states that the athlete will do nothing that brings dishonor to the team or school. This agreement is usually signed by the students and parents in advance.
If you openly belittle your coaches and teammates, you ARE a bully. Not to mention a sore loser with an attitude problem.

I don't place someone who writes a mean poem on the same plane as someone who picks on kids over and over and makes them not want to go to school. While not a nice poem, no way I would label him a bully for writing his feelings, especially on a single occasion.

And while there may be an unwritten code, I have NEVER seen a school have kids sign any type of morality clauses. And I also don't think a poem, in which he was asked to write his feelings, rises to the level of bullying or bringing dishonor to the school. A sore loser with an attitude problem? Perhaps you're onto something there. If my kid, I would certainly recommend against such writing, especially about fellow students/players. That's just good sportsmanship. But when someone ran afoul of good sportsmanship when I was younger, it certainly never lead to suspension, and certainly never lead to the child being labeled as a bully over a one time incident that didn't even involve any physical activity or face to face contact.

[DragonStryk72]

A lot of schools have an honor code for participants in extracurricular activities. Part of it states that the athlete will do nothing that brings dishonor to the team or school. This agreement is usually signed by the students and parents in advance.
If you openly belittle your coaches and teammates, you ARE a bully. Not to mention a sore loser with an attitude problem.

You know what bullying is? It's me getting beat on and degraded from Kindergarten through Sixth grade. It's when I started fighting back, so the bullies then came on in greater numbers, and turned it more to social bullying.

What bullying is not: A teenager complaining about his football team on a losing streak, because of an assignment to write about something that made him angry. Yeah, being on a huge losing streak is pretty well going to give you some anger about it if you care at all about the team you're on football.

Bullying is not possible on someone who exceeds your power by leaps and bounds, and can crush your entire academic career in one go. Bullying is going after someone who has not the power to stop you. Take it from the bullied.