• Twitter
  • Facebook
News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Union heaven

The disciplinary action against the two Snider wrestling coaches doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Because of public-intoxication charges stemming from a confrontation in an Indianapolis restaurant, they will lose their coaching jobs for at least two years but will stay in the classroom except for a three-day suspension. The usual reason for an employer to take action against somebody who has committed a misdemeanor when on his own time is that it somehow affects his job. A reasonable argument here is that school employees are role models and mentors for impressionable youngsters, and a number of kids can adopt an "if they can do it, so can I" attitude. If that is the case, they should have lost both their coaching and teaching positions. If it is not, they should have lost neither.

And I'm not buying the "union made us do it" argument, which I've heard from public employers all through my journalistic career. The teacher contract (which does not cover coaching) says the only reason they could have been fired was if they had failed to report the incident? Please. That reminds me of the old joke about the kid who killed his parents, then begged for the court's mercy because he was an orphan. Just who negotiated that contract that the school board now uses as an excuse? It didn't just drop out of union heaven.

Posted in: Our town
Quantcast