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Coach Fired for Serving Beer: To Parents
Call out the alcohol police. A high school softball coach has lost his place in the dugout for serving alcohol . . . but not to his athletes.
Coach Brad Young threw an end-of-season swimming party in his backyard and invited not just the team but their parents.
When one parent showed up with beer and other parents started drinking, Young told his local Fox TV station that he let them drink and that was that. “No kid was uncomfortable. No kid had access to it. No kid drank. No parent got more than probably one or two beers. I did not drink,” Young said.
The school says it doesn’t matter. It was a school-oriented event, an “official team function,” and alcohol was a no-no.
OK, let me just throw this out there – I will drink a beer in front of my daughter. I don’t get obliterated in front of her, but I would prefer she see people responsibly using alcohol. I don’t do it JUST to set a good example to her (I happen to like the taste of beer), but it’s always a consideration. That said, I’m not about to serve her.
I put that out there to illustrate parents have the upper hand here. Kids weren’t drinking. By all accounts, people over the age of twenty-one were, and if a parent didn’t want their kids exposed to alcohol, they were there to intervene. They could well have said “hey, can we knock off the drinking” or decided they wanted to take their kids away from the party. It’s called being an adult, where the “run and tell the principal” method is decidedly high school.
And for what? Again, there was nothing illegal about the party or the drinking itself.
So how far does school-0riented event go? This wasn’t, in fact, a school SPONSORED event like the prom or other off-premises get-together. It was sponsored by the coach, true, and kids were invited. But doesn’t the presence of parents off-campus put this in a whole other realm?
Image: ABC.net
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6 Comments
Halle commented on Jul 16 09 at 12:06 pmThis is RIDICULOUS, but the school may have been using this as an excuse to get rid of him. Usually, if a school’s already trying to fire somebody they will look for something like this to excuse themselves.
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Jul 16 09 at 12:10 pmThat school is a buzzkill.
Tara commented on Jul 17 09 at 9:29 amThis has to be the most absurd thing I have ever heard. How is this the coaches fault? The parents to the kids where there and brought beer themselves. I am so confused by how they can let him go over this.
Manjari commented on Jul 17 09 at 9:57 pmHow dumb! He wasn’t even the one who served it, and he didn’t drink any.
smallbird commented on Jul 21 09 at 11:19 pmJust another example of “zero tolerance” gone bad. Common sense? NAH!
bob1701a commented on Apr 24 10 at 12:52 pmThis is almost as stupid as the 5 year old that was arrested for pointing his finger and saying “BANG!” At least that was in New Jersey.
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