Football favoritsm?
OK I have my panties in a little bit of a bunch this morning.
Did you hear about the story about the boys In Kenton putting the deer decoy on the road?
There was a story in Wednesday’s Columbus Dispatch you can look at here and a follow up story in today’s paper here.
Two of the perpetrators are members of the Kenton High School football team. Their actions caused an accident ended up resulting in two people being seriously injured, one of which has permanent brain damage all because of a high school prank.
Robert Roby Jr., 18, swerved to miss the fake deer, crashing his car into a pole and fence. He broke his neck and collarbone and shattered an arm and leg. He has since undergone several surgeries, including his latest last month. The passenger in Roby’s car, 17-year-old Dustin Zachariah, has brain damage.
The Kenton football players Daylin Campbell, the team’s quarterback and Jesse Howard, pled no contest to several charges.
"I’m cutting you somewhat of a break here, and the court will get criticized for this," retired Union County judge Gary McKinley said at the sentencing. "I shouldn’t even be doing this," he added.
He ended up sentencing them to 60 days at the Logan County Juvenile Detention facility AFTER the conclusion of the football season. Campbell and Howard are on house arrest and will be for six months after detention; must pay fines and restitution; must write a 500-word essay on "Why I should think before I act"; and must complete 1,500 and 500 hours of community service, respectively.
The story has made national news. It’s been picked up by the Associated Press national wire and has been featured on websites like Foxnews.com, cnn.com and msnbc.com.
I guess at first when I read the story and thought about it I said maybe the kids were better off playing football and serving their sentence later. Then, I started thinking about the victims and what they were probably going through and allowing these kids to play football first, then serve a 60-day sentence in juvenile detention and do their community service was just plain, flat out wrong.
Punishment is part of pleading to the crime. Making them miss the football season would be part and parcel of learning from their mistakes. Not taking football away sends the wrong message to them or anyone else that would be involved in something like this.
That’s my two cents…what’s yours?
Did you hear about the story about the boys In Kenton putting the deer decoy on the road?
There was a story in Wednesday’s Columbus Dispatch you can look at here and a follow up story in today’s paper here.
Two of the perpetrators are members of the Kenton High School football team. Their actions caused an accident ended up resulting in two people being seriously injured, one of which has permanent brain damage all because of a high school prank.
Robert Roby Jr., 18, swerved to miss the fake deer, crashing his car into a pole and fence. He broke his neck and collarbone and shattered an arm and leg. He has since undergone several surgeries, including his latest last month. The passenger in Roby’s car, 17-year-old Dustin Zachariah, has brain damage.
The Kenton football players Daylin Campbell, the team’s quarterback and Jesse Howard, pled no contest to several charges.
"I’m cutting you somewhat of a break here, and the court will get criticized for this," retired Union County judge Gary McKinley said at the sentencing. "I shouldn’t even be doing this," he added.
He ended up sentencing them to 60 days at the Logan County Juvenile Detention facility AFTER the conclusion of the football season. Campbell and Howard are on house arrest and will be for six months after detention; must pay fines and restitution; must write a 500-word essay on "Why I should think before I act"; and must complete 1,500 and 500 hours of community service, respectively.
The story has made national news. It’s been picked up by the Associated Press national wire and has been featured on websites like Foxnews.com, cnn.com and msnbc.com.
I guess at first when I read the story and thought about it I said maybe the kids were better off playing football and serving their sentence later. Then, I started thinking about the victims and what they were probably going through and allowing these kids to play football first, then serve a 60-day sentence in juvenile detention and do their community service was just plain, flat out wrong.
Punishment is part of pleading to the crime. Making them miss the football season would be part and parcel of learning from their mistakes. Not taking football away sends the wrong message to them or anyone else that would be involved in something like this.
That’s my two cents…what’s yours?
posted by --J-- @ 9:40 AM
5 Comments:
At 1:21 PM,
Anonymous said…
High school sports is a priviledge, not a right.
If I were the judge, they would be required to do many hours of service work with handicapped children and adults..to see firsthand the type of daily struggle their "tom-foolery" has placed upon these two unfortunate young men...and no football this year.
At 2:21 PM,
Anonymous said…
Sounds like the judge caved to pressure. Is this Judge apointed or elected?
At 3:36 PM,
Anonymous said…
a few unconnected thoughts
The judge (retired) is from Marion Co. If he was from Putnam Co. he would have said, "Football? No, let's get this over with before basketball starts".
Regardless of when they serve they're still serving time.
The judge could have delayed serving until after week 10 thus making Coach Mauk choose between playing these boys or someone who could play in a potential playoff game.
By waiting, these boys won't be home for Christmas.
At 9:25 PM,
Anonymous said…
It completely surprised me as well to see these guys get off like that. Sure, they spend their time in jail, but not right away, which isn't right to me. I don't care how much the coach vouches for the kids' needing to be at football to help them gain structure, they did a crime and deserve what everyone else deserves. But I guess I can expect no less nowadays seeing as to how much the college and pro athletes can get away with. I heard someone say one time about a star player that got busted for drugs and not in trouble at a local high school..."he would have to committ a murder to miss any time." We'll this is pretty darn close.
Rob
At 7:28 AM,
Fat Dan said…
"...'he would have to committ a murder to miss any time.' We'll this is pretty darn close."
Attempted murder doesn't count I guess?
It is pretty ridiculus to even consider football season when sentencing someone for a crime. I am sure that if I almost killed two people the judge wouldn't let me wait until I had retired from work beofre serving my sentence.
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