Teen Boys Denied Whiskey, Guns and Fast Cars in Albemarle County

Ronald Bailey | March 27, 2007

Actually, the local paper, the Daily Progress reports:

Albemarle County’s training rule for high school athletes violates the constitutional rights of the athletes and their parents, a nonprofit civil liberties group said Monday...

Under the rule, high school athletes must pledge that they will not use tobacco, alcohol or drugs on and off school grounds, and their parents must agree to tell coaches and principals if their children do.

Next the public schools will be requiring that students eat only trans-fat free, free range organic arugula. This policy nicely turns on its head the old school ploy of getting students to rat out their parents' recreational drug use to the police. 

But seriously folks, as my colleague Brian Doherty noted, private companies are now monitoring their employees' use of tobacco and alcohol too. As intrusive as that is, at least it's being done by private companies (and I would quit any company that tried to ban my drinking and smoking off the job).

In this case, a government agency--public schools--are trying to monitor and manage student behavior off grounds. The schools are not liable for what happens after the bell rings and since they aren't, it's none of their business what kids do once they get off the bus. Sure the kids could refuse to play sports (and I hope some of them do), but this just another sorry example of bureaucratic overreach that is pervading our society. 

Whole article here.

Disclosure: I live most of the time in Charlottesville which is the county seat of Albemarle County. 

Comments

|3.27.07 @ 12:30PM|#

Yeah, but Charlottesville itself is not a part of the county, despite having some of its organs within it.

|3.27.07 @ 12:37PM|#

As intrusive as that is, at least it's being done by private companies (and I would quit any company that tried to ban my drinking and smoking off the job).

It's still the "we own you" mentality.

Dan T.|3.27.07 @ 12:37PM|#

This rule does seem a little unnecessary given that it's illegal for high schoolers to use tobacco, alcohol, or illegal drugs in the first place.

Although it's hard to see how asking somebody not to do something that's already illegal is a violation of their rights.

|3.27.07 @ 12:39PM|#

The schools I went to always maintained that i was under their authority from the time I entered the school/got on the bus until I crossed the threshold of my house.

D.A. Ridgely|3.27.07 @ 12:41PM|#

Most.Pointless.Disclosure.Ever. Unless you're selling fast cars, guns and booze to these kids on the side, and I know you'd never do such a thing, Mr. Bailey. (But keep it up. The "Bailey Disclosure" has become a part of Reason's institutional lore.)

Sadly, I'd guess this pledge nonsense is far more common than merely in Albemarle County and also that many coaches are imposing dietary restrictions on the players, too. (Actually, that makes some sense.) I'd bet it's common in private schools, too. Yeah, it's yet another power grab, but athletes have always been perceived as fair game -- something about jocks being role models, I hear -- and coaches as a class aren't known for their delicate sensibilities when it comes to legal niceties.

The bit about parents as stoolies is a nice new twist, though. "Coach, I've got some bad news. When I was taking my son Billy to get his steroid injection yesterday, I think I smelled tobacco on his breath. Better bench him." Yeah, right.

|3.27.07 @ 12:41PM|#

Under the rule, high school athletes must pledge that they will not use tobacco, alcohol or drugs on and off school grounds, and their parents must agree to tell coaches and principals if their children do.

Requiring parents to notify quasi-government officials (that may or may not have their own mandatory-reporting requirements)that their children have committed crimes seems to be a severve problem to me.

|3.27.07 @ 12:41PM|#

Technically, companies should have the right to ban smoking and drinking, but I wouldn't throw a hissy at all if there where bans put in place to prevent it.

Dan T.|3.27.07 @ 12:42PM|#

It's still the "we own you" mentality.

Reason has always had this strange idea that only the government can oppress people.

|3.27.07 @ 12:43PM|#

Note that demanding that student-athletes must conform to a code of ethics to participate in voluntary school activities is not the real problem here.

|3.27.07 @ 12:46PM|#

A little off topic, but am I the only one who reads Bailey's posts and imagines him speaking in a Ben Stein sort of tone??

"Bueller?...Bueller?...."

Sorry, Ron. Just me :)

Wirkman Virkkala|3.27.07 @ 12:49PM|#

This is quite old hat. Not "Liberty Hat" old hat, but old hat nonetheless. When I played high school sports, the athletes were allegedly held up to higher standards than the rest of the student body. Perhaps this was to counter (or, more likely, solidify) the natural tendency to idolize athletes and treat them as the school's Upper Crust.

Athletes were routinely reprimanded for doing things that other kids did all the time, like "hold hands in the hall" (not with each other, of course, but with their girlfriends; this was a long time ago).

Of course, athletes tended to be the riskiest behaved males in the school, which did in fact mean drinking, tobacco and other drugs, as well as sexual activity (as much as they could get). This is just basic evolutionary psychology. That's the way Alpha males and pack males behave.

I don't see the attempt to clamp down on such behavior as a horrendous problem. Nannying, bullying, and even punishing those kids who want to be in sports is as old as the hills. Think hazing, in part. It has ties to military training, where depriving the grunt from basic comforts, and setting him apart from the rest of society, is SOP. Much like a cult, really.

And sports is the main cult of our time. Mainstream culture, but cult nevertheless.

It's not as though kids are REQUIRED to participate in sports. (Though where I grew up, if one didn't one made oneself a social outcast. After a while, I decided social outcast was better than being part of the cult.)

It would be better were there no sports sponsored by public schools. All sports should be "city league" and "county league" voluntary organizations, as many are in the East, but few are in the West. (I don't know why. I"ll let others care.)

Here's a question: Is there any hope of separating schooling from state as long as we can't separate sports from schooling?

The Wine Commonsewer|3.27.07 @ 12:53PM|#

Ron, I love the headline. :-)

I have to take a somewhat contrary and simultaneously non-contrary position though.

1. There are training rules for sports. Pro, college, and HS. It isn't unreasonable for a football player to be expected to follow certain rules. Last time I checked, football was an elective. If you don't like the rules, don't play.

2. It's a stupid pledge though. If I were the coach I'd hand out a flyer. Here's the rules boys. You break 'em, I kick your ass. You break 'em often, I kick you off the team (that'd be a violation of the kid's civil rights too I suppose).

And that bit about having parents rat out the kids is priceless.

As for employers, Henry Ford would fire anybody caught smoking, on or off the job. He also hired people to drive around the city and look to see what kind of car was parked in the employee's driveway. If they found a Chevy you'd be standing tall in the boss' office. The unions put an end to all of that. Well, maybe not the smoking.

And for the record, HS football players have been told what to eat, what to drink, and not to have sex 24 hours before game time for at least three centuries.

The Wine Commonsewer|3.27.07 @ 12:57PM|#

Jimmyda.....

"Bueller?...Bueller?...."

LOL.

BTW, I have heard through reliable sources that Ron Bailey is a heck of a nice guy. Also heard he likes red wine, so that puts him one up on the next guy.

|3.27.07 @ 1:06PM|#

High school sports are a privilege, and it seems like this kind of thing has always gone on. If you don't want to live up to a heightened standard, then go hang out with the losers in the general population. Wasn't there recently a SCOTUS case dealing with this in the context of drug testing?

zeh|3.27.07 @ 1:07PM|#

We had this sort of pledge when I was in high school and played sports (football, over 20 years ago). In our case, the pledge was made to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, which oversaw all public school athletics in the state. If you got caught in the off-season, you missed 1/3 of the following season. Caught during the season, and you missed the rest. We did our best not to get caught drinking, chewing, or smoking.

|3.27.07 @ 1:07PM|#

This is quite old hat. Not "Liberty Hat" old hat, but old hat nonetheless. When I played high school sports, the athletes were allegedly held up to higher standards than the rest of the student body.
The football guy in Dazed and Confused comes to mind.

|3.27.07 @ 1:08PM|#

Except maybe for the demand for parental snitching, pledges like these have indeed been common for quite some time.

|3.27.07 @ 1:11PM|#

My high school footbal team, had this policy been in place, and enforced, would have been reduced to searching for a six-man league. And I would have been in the stands, drinking beer and laughing my ass off. In college, the sole "training rule" was, "Be ready to play, because if yer not, somebody else is."

I see this stuff as another attempt by various parties as an attempt to extinguish meritocracy in any form. Just because "Johhny" is an obediant little dweeb, he should play linebacker in the place of "Timmy" who, despite having drunk a tewlve-pack of Coors Light and smoked eighty bongs Friday night, can still run faster, jump higher, and hit harder than Johnny on his best day.

But it's the process that matters, not the result; we're all winners.

|3.27.07 @ 1:15PM|#

Man, it's the same bullshit they tried to pull in my day. If it ain't that piece of paper, there's some other choice they're gonna try and make for you. You gotta do what Randall Pink Floyd wants to do man. Let me tell you this, the older you do get the more rules they're gonna try to get you to follow. You just gotta keep livin' man, L-I-V-I-N.

|3.27.07 @ 1:18PM|#

"another attempt by various parties as an attempt to"?

Gaaaah! Whose job is it to proofread this stuff?

|3.27.07 @ 1:18PM|#

"It's not as though kids are REQUIRED to participate in sports. (Though where I grew up, if one didn't one made oneself a social outcast. After a while, I decided social outcast was better than being part of the cult.)

It would be better were there no sports sponsored by public schools. All sports should be "city league" and "county league" voluntary organizations, as many are in the East, but few are in the West. (I don't know why. I"ll let others care.)"


INDEED!!! Seems like it would be a lot more fun for the high schoolers involved if they just got together with their friends after school and organized their own games. Not having to deal with all those rules (they could make up their own) and all the rest of the bureaucratic b.s. Cheaper, too! Sports are, after all, supposed to be for fun, since none of those kids are ever going to make a living at it. Eventually high school kids will start to figure out that being an obedient little sports program clone doesn't make you cool, it makes you a tool.

|3.27.07 @ 1:21PM|#

Eventually high school kids will start to figure out that being an obedient little sports program clone doesn't make you cool, it makes you a tool.

Doubtful. Most people don't figure that out until later, and some never do.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|3.27.07 @ 1:27PM|#

and their parents must agree to tell coaches and principals if their children do.

If my son signs it, I'm sending a note along with it that says "FUCK YOU".

|3.27.07 @ 1:28PM|#

I see this stuff as another attempt by various parties as an attempt to extinguish meritocracy in any form. Just because "Johhny" is an obediant little dweeb, he should play linebacker in the place of "Timmy" who, despite having drunk a tewlve-pack of Coors Light and smoked eighty bongs Friday night, can still run faster, jump higher, and hit harder than Johnny on his best day.

And that's where such a system inevitably breaks down or is corrupted. "Timmy" will always get a free pass through the athletics mill--everyone in charge simply looks the other way. School athletics means money and prestige, and the most capable athletes will always be welcomed.

Personally, I agree with getting 'varsity'-level athletics out of the schools.

|3.27.07 @ 1:33PM|#

What's with all the jock-hate? In my highschool the kids who played sports where a pretty decent group of guys, not some wacky John Huges caricature.

I see this stuff as another attempt by various parties as an attempt to extinguish meritocracy in any form. Just because "Johhny" is an obediant little dweeb, he should play linebacker in the place of "Timmy" who, despite having drunk a tewlve-pack of Coors Light and smoked eighty bongs Friday night, can still run faster, jump higher, and hit harder than Johnny on his best day.
I doubt the school officals think that far ahead. Looking out for the well being of the students (and, to get a little sinister, saving their asses from a tarnished image) seems to be the main goal of these pledges.

|3.27.07 @ 1:35PM|#

Teen Boys Denied Whiskey, Guns and Fast Cars in Albemarle County

You forgot hookers. What...? oh, hookers are still OK...? ...nevermind then

The Wine Commonsewer|3.27.07 @ 1:36PM|#

Pirate,

Seems like it would be a lot more fun for the high schoolers involved if they just got together with their friends after school and organized their own games.

Right arm. That's what my friends did. It was cool, too, because I could play football barefoot and I could run like hell without those clunky cleats.

I played freshman football just long enough to realize that football wasn't a whole lot different than I imagined Marine Corps basic training to be. Five years later that mistaken impression was pounded out of me in living color by some guy who looked a bit like Yosemite Sam in a Smokey.

A bunch of us skinny teenage boys played tackle football (without pads) most winter Sunday afternoons.

Key word here is played. Organized football is all about work, drill, and shoving that stupid blocking sled around the field with your shoulder while the coach screams obscenities.

Sand lot? Show up and play. An exhausting three hours later you snaffle up a couple of burgers and a large Coke, then head home for supper.

TWC

Brian Sorgatz|3.27.07 @ 1:37PM|#

Brooks' parable of Johnny and Timmy reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron." Read the whole thing at
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html

Of course, high schools get away with this partly because teenagers are the new niggers.

The Wine Commonsewer|3.27.07 @ 1:39PM|#

TPG, FY, funny stuff. Every time I was absent from school my dad would send a note that said:

TWC was absent yesterday due to circumstances beyond our control.

It used to really piss of the office staff.

|3.27.07 @ 1:40PM|#

My uncle went to my private, Catholic high School in the 1950s. He told me that, in his day, students who hosted parties had to submit the guest lists to the nuns ahead of time, and they would vet it. For example, if kids from other schools - especially public schools - were allowed in, the sisters might not approve all of them. Freshmen going to the same parties as upperclassmen was right out, and if any hint of alcohol got back to Mother Superior, heads would roll. Just being in the presence of the Evil Chemical could get you gigged. Drug use wasn't even contemplated.

By the 70s, all that was gone, but you could still get in trouble if word got out that you were using pot or pills, or if underage drinking was going on. Some of the Seniors were 18, and could drink legally, but a coach could still demand that his players stay on the wagon while in training. That was the theory, but as long as you didn't get arrested or puke on coach's lawn, anybody could get anything required for all their inebriation needs. Booze was everywhere on our Senior class trip, and me only 17. When my debate team went to CFL Nationals in our Junior year we kept our noses clean, but as Seniors we went to New Orleans, and spent our free time drinking in the French Quarter. The cast parties for our school plays had wonderful choices in cocktails, wine and brew, and a lot more pretty girls. Our Senior class rented a party boat for post-prom, with a live band and beer for everybody. At least we weren't driving to and from bars, and anybody who got too smashed would lose their stomach contents over the side.

Thank ghu nobody ever asked me to sign an honor code in order to particpate in extracurriculars back then. I might have been enough of a wuss to have followed it!

I seriously detest the demand that parents fink on their kids. What's the point of an honor code if it isn't self-enforcing? That a team member would give up the privilege of having a legal beer with his Dad isn't too unreasonable, but the lack of a religious-practice exception is just stupid, and reeks of a Protestant Temperance mindset that can't conceive of anything other than denatured grape juice as a proper communion beverage. Idiots.

As for scholastic sports, there is the European model of local "sports clubs." We see a bit of that here with soccer and AAU basketball. AAU hoops is, in many areas, the tail that wags the H.S. dog, for good or ill. The good thing about clubs is that, once the elite or travelling team is selected, the squads for the less gifted particpants aren't dissolved. Sure, high school can have intramural teams, but the divide between the players on the J.V. or Varsity and those just playing "rec league" is huge, and the latter don't get any kind of coaching. Often you don't even keep playing the same sport - softball replaces baseball, and football becomes "touch" or "flag."

Kevin
(Has an older brother who was cut from Varsity Baseball as a Senior because he wouldn't cut his hair.)

|3.27.07 @ 1:47PM|#

Hey, Brian Sorgatz, quit pimping your blog. Especially considering how bad it is.

I. Self. Divine|3.27.07 @ 1:54PM|#

My sophomore year in high school, my high school's football team was number 1 in the state, thanks largely in part to lenient disciplinary policies towards our athletes. For example, our star player Noel, was caught with pot at school. Yet, no charges were filed and the school decided to wait until AFTER the season to punish him. That same year, a good friend of my brother's was our star receiver. He received a DUI and the school looked past it. In fact, he didn't get kicked off the team until he received a second DUI, this time with a hit and run charge.

Thomas Paine\'s Goiter|3.27.07 @ 1:57PM|#

It used to really piss of the office staff.

Exactly. I already like your father. Screw the school. If I want to give my kid a beer, he's getting a fucking beer and fuck you if you think I'm going to tattle on him.

It's grown up time now - take your little nanny ass back to the office and find a new motivational speaker for an assembly.

Assholes.

Brian Sorgatz|3.27.07 @ 1:58PM|#

Sorry, Jonathan, but I have no intention of honoring your request. SiteMeter tells me that my "pimping" here consistently attracts readers, so go blow.

|3.27.07 @ 2:05PM|#

Football coaches are the only public school officials that are at risk of getting canned because of performance and they hate it when the quarterback is puking up JD in the fourth quarter.

|3.27.07 @ 2:07PM|#

"-- something about jocks being role models,"

*falls out of chair, convulsing with laughter.*

Yeah, never understood that mentality, myself.

|3.27.07 @ 2:13PM|#

Just because I can dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids.

vault_dog4|3.27.07 @ 2:23PM|#

What a bunch of athlete haters. Seems like a lot of you got picked on pretty harshly.

I am a high school coach and an avid Reason reader. And I have absolutely no problem with telling kids to abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and other illegal or harmful activities. I have no problem with it being a rule that they could be kicked out of the program for.

Athletics are a privilege, not a right. And if a child knows beforehand and full well that there are certain requirements (such as passing all classes), there should be no whining about following the rules once you sign up for them.

We can be against rules all we want, but once we give contractual agreement to follow them, we should.

Quit hating athletics.

vault_dog4|3.27.07 @ 2:24PM|#

By the way, we have never asked that parents rat out their kids. Probably because of the reason that we wouldn't ever imagine a scenario when a parent would ever do that.

|3.27.07 @ 2:29PM|#

I imagine that high school athletics will stop being popular as soon as everyone realizes that the joys of athleticism, hard work, being a part of a team, and a sense of achievement suck.

Plus, high school sports heroes will stop having to have the best looking girlfriends.

|3.27.07 @ 2:33PM|#

The parent snitching proviso is the weirdest part of it. Presumably a parent would either condone or punish whatever activity. Further, if the parent didn't want the kid on the team as punishment for such activity, the parent could just call up the coach and say that the kid shouldn't be on the team anymore.

|3.27.07 @ 2:37PM|#

Parents need to learn to reply to this