Ooltewah Basketball Season Canceled

[crazzyness]

Just a different thought that hasn't been covered yet:

 

Ooltewah is a fairly large school if I'm not mistaking. Usually, large schools have separate JV/Freshman teams and coaching staffs. It does suck for the coaches and Freshman/JV players who weren't even on the trip to have their season canceled too. There are some mediocre players that would never be good enough to play varsity ball that just got their last few games of competitive ball, ever, cancled because of the acts of a few criminals.

[32hammer]

Let me reiterate my earlier statement that this was a terrible act and I truly feel sorry for those individuals and families that were injured.  With that being said the news media is claiming that three other team members were bullied.  Bullied along with diversification are the current catch phrases in education.  Most any student/family can claim that they were bullied and everyone falls apart.  What ever happened to the day's of kids going out behind the school and having a fist fight to solve their problems?  A good old fashioned fight will solve most issues and the participants are friends the next day.

 

In todays' schools, if a good kid stops a bully or takes up for another kid being bullied, the punishment from the school is so out of proportion to the action that a good kid will always hesitate to take action. The bad kids with lousy parents don't care about the consequences  so the actions keep escalating. If someone had knuckle bumped one of these kids when they started being jerks to other people it would never have gotten this far.

 

The good kids are handcuffed by the system, so the bad kids get free reign and keep getting away with  stuff until something like this happens.

 

The parents of the three boys have to be held at least partially responsible as well. But I'm sure they and everyone else have lots of excuses ready for why this happened.  You will never convince me that the coach and administration did not know some of this was going on before hand. It was allowed to go unchecked by the adults in charge until it escalated to the current situation. There are no  student "checks" in place to stop this type of behavior . The schools are forced to accept unacceptable behavior from students instead of enforcing respect and discipline .  So we are raising a generation of kids that feel there actions will be excused no matter what they do.

 

There is plenty of blame to go around on this one. But a good kid defending himself or defending someone else should not be kicked out of school. That would stop some of the problems. If society would quit make excuses for every loser , that would curb the sense of entitlement that leads to some of these problems. But neither of those things are going to be happen in the near future.

But there is no excuse for the Administration, coaches, etc , if they near this type of behavior was going on and did not stop it, that would validate them keeping there job.

[orngnblk]

In todays' schools, if a good kid stops a bully or takes up for another kid being bullied, the punishment from the school is so out of proportion to the action that a good kid will always hesitate to take action. The bad kids with lousy parents don't care about the consequences so the actions keep escalating. If someone had knuckle bumped one of these kids when they started being jerks to other people it would never have gotten this far.

 

The good kids are handcuffed by the system, so the bad kids get free reign and keep getting away with stuff until something like this happens.

 

The parents of the three boys have to be held at least partially responsible as well. But I'm sure they and everyone else have lots of excuses ready for why this happened. You will never convince me that the coach and administration did not know some of this was going on before hand. It was allowed to go unchecked by the adults in charge until it escalated to the current situation. There are no student "checks" in place to stop this type of behavior . The schools are forced to accept unacceptable behavior from students instead of enforcing respect and discipline . So we are raising a generation of kids that feel there actions will be excused no matter what they do.

 

There is plenty of blame to go around on this one. But a good kid defending himself or defending someone else should not be kicked out of school. That would stop some of the problems. If society would quit make excuses for every loser , that would curb the sense of entitlement that leads to some of these problems. But neither of those things are going to be happen in the near future.

But there is no excuse for the Administration, coaches, etc , if they near this type of behavior was going on and did not stop it, that would validate them keeping there job.

WOW!Great post hit the nail on the head.

[chattaauhoops]

So many have posted very good thoughts and even support / prayers, etc. on this thread while others ......well.... I won't stoop to that level. I would ask that those of you slamming every player, every coach, every administrative personnel and every parent would back off. You can post all the great ideas of what you would do but you have no clue what the School Board members And powers that be are instructing those actually employed by the system to do or not to do, to say or not to say. For those of us that live in this area, actually know some of these kids, these parents, administrators and coaches, we will be dealing with this horrific story for years to come. OHS is a good school with good kids, programs, coaches, administration, etc. 90% of those being hammered on coach T are really good people who love kids and have given their lives to try and make a difference in young lives. Are they perfect? No but neither are any of us. Many of them actually have other ideas of how this should have been handled, but must follow instructions given by those above them in authority positions. As for the very few that have treated young players in ways that are less than human, I assure all of you that their day is coming and their lives will never be the same. The victims are in our prayers as they try to move forward in life. These young men have to start all over at new schools, make all new friends and constantly look over their shoulders in the hallways because everyone in our area knows why they are at different schools today.

 

So if you that want to rant would join us in unity and remember the victims, their families and the many good people who are trying to move on in life from this in prayer our area would appreciate it.

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

Just a different thought that hasn't been covered yet:

 

Ooltewah is a fairly large school if I'm not mistaking. Usually, large schools have separate JV/Freshman teams and coaching staffs. It does suck for the coaches and Freshman/JV players who weren't even on the trip to have their season canceled too. There are some mediocre players that would never be good enough to play varsity ball that just got their last few games of competitive ball, ever, cancled because of the acts of a few criminals.

I agree 100%. But according to Hepcat they were all involved.

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

Yeah sure. I should have sugar coated my opinion to be more politically correct and used the "one bad apple" analogy.

Hepcat you are entitled to your opinion. And you should never have to sugar coat the truth. But the problem is your statement implied that all the kids on the team were involved and that's just not right. I can't believe you don't see that. I agree that the season should be cancelled. But I think there are kids on this team that had absolutely nothing to do with this incident and they don't deserve to be put down in any way.

Edited January 7, 2016 by BIGPURPLEMACHINE

[Indian]

I am glad there is a thread where we can discuss this incident. I wish "moderators" would post why they close a thread.

 

There are several issues here. Teachers have a duty to report child abuse and child sexual abuse. Failure to report the first one can be a misdemeanor, failure to report the other is a felony. Hazing is, and has been, against the law for years in Tennessee (even though this went way beyond that). How will this case be fully investigated since the major incident took place in the Fourth District, but there might be a systemic pattern of abuse here that took place in the Eleventh District. Does the school system investigate themselves? Does the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office conduct a further investigation in the Chattanooga area (Eleventh District). Would the TBI be called in? They have to be requested by the District Attorney. Just some thoughts.

I dont know who closed the other one but some of the posts were just too much with the language, etc. Removing posts often also requires removing replies and after several it's basically been closed down anyway. Nothing in this one is out of line.

[ksgovols]

Is there a state wide hazing protocol?  There should be.  These initiations that even some old timers give a nod and a wink to, get out of hand too many times these days.  There's no room in high school athletics for systematic degradation of younger or weaker student-athletes.  If nobody else will, then TSSAA should institute specific policy in this regard and penalties should be stiff.  Whether or not games are missed or seasons cancelled is a big punishment for the innocent but a drop in the ocean for the guilty.  I agree that there has to be team ramifications for such behavior.

[winning1]

 Sad situation! Just curious, is it possible for 2 teams who are now short a game to get together and schedule a game to make up for the missed Ooltewah game? My son plays for Red Bank and we only had 8 home games to begin with, Ooltewah was scheduled to come in 2 weeks and now we will be down to 7 home games.

 I’m not trying to diminish anything about the situation and I think they did the right thing, just honestly curious if that is possible and I’m sure we are not the only school that will want a game added back

Have you coach play some private school like Berean in Hixson. There looking for games.

[Thomas508]

Have you coach play some private school like Berean in Hixson. There looking for games.

 Thanks, I asked him about it last night and he said he was working on adding a game back, so we'll see who he finds. My wife went to Berean, so that would actually be fun.

[Indian]

Chattanooga Patriots are not bad this year, good shooters and a 6'8" post.

[Thomas508]

Chattanooga Patriots are not bad this year, good shooters and a 6'8" post.

I know a lot of those boys!