Important lessons
I would like to respond to the comments made by a couple parents who were interviewed by this newspaper about the underage drinking that took place after Dallastown's homecoming and the consequences that were given by the school. I'm a therapist and I work mostly with teenagers and their parents. I commend the parents who commented in the article and said that underage drinking would not happen in their homes. However, these same parents expressed concern that the kids should not have been cut from the football team because the school shouldn't "ruin a kid's life because of a bad mistake." I'm sure these parents mean well and just feel for what the kids are going through. However, I believe this kind of thinking is at the heart of the mixed messages we send to teenagers.
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I commend the school officials for taking this offense very seriously and sending a clear message. So a kid loses a full football scholarship to college. He will then be forced to rethink his life, find another way to go to college (most kids don't get full scholarships), lose the chance to be a football star but gain his life in so many other ways. The lessons learned from this type of experience by the kids involved and by kids watching this play out far outweigh the value of a full football scholarship! The most important lessons in life are often the most painful ones. We're talking about life and death issues! Ask any parent who has lost a child to a drunk driver or alcohol poisoning whether they think a football scholarship is more important than the life of their child! We need to rethink our priorities in regard to what we are teaching our kids.
This event will very likely get the attention of lots of teens (and hopefully parents) and will undoubtedly save lives.
Patty Nelson
York Township
This is to those of you out there who think they have the perfect children, or somehow think that they, themselves have never done anything wrong, including our school administration. (And you know who you are) In the past month the newspaper has been filled with more articles than I could count regarding an after homecoming party. Football players were removed from their team and cheerleaders from their squads all over what they knew as a rumor. There has also been minors named in the paper...which is a big no no. The blogs were tremendous, and actually amusing. As if our children were not humiliated, embarrassed and put down enough, the harassment continues. What is funny to me is that alot of peole have alot to say about something that most of them have no knowledge of. What else do these kids have to go through???? It is unfortunate and embarrasing that I call some of you people my neighbors, my aquaintances and even my friends. It is even more unfortunate that I send my child to a school which doesn't care at all about their students. After 4 years of going to the same high school my son questions his assistant principle regarding his character and the response he got was " I don't know you". So I ask you Mr Administrator....Who do you know? If you don't know that stand out player of your winning football team, and you don't know the kid they claim is your homecoming king, do you really know any of your students or do you just go to work day after day and play the part? These children and their parents, that most of you DON"T KNOW deserve much more than this letter will give them, but just so all you hypocrites understand....they are good kids, good students, good athletes, good friends and they have parents who love them, as I am sure you love your children. If it makes all of the people out there that have no life sleep better at night to down our children, and their parents, just remember, your children are not perfect, you are not perfect and it is evident that the school administration is far from perfect. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. I truely hope that none of you will ever have to be put through what we have gone through in the last month. This shouldn't be a problem being that we are dealing with such perfection from you. Lastly I would like to thank our TRUE friends, family, teachers and actually people I don't know for giving our children the understanding, compassion, and forgiveness they more than deserve. It is funny that we are taught to forgive, but yet most of you who call yourselves good Christians don't know the meaning of the word.