Advocate Photo Blog Making News! Darien Girls' Lacrosse Coach Suspended

I am constantly talking about how awesome the Advocate's photoblog In Sight is.  I don't mean to be repetitive, but there's an interesting discussion happening right now about the photos that Bob Luckey posted of the Darien girls' lacrosse coach grabbing her goalie's helmet and appearing to shove her backwards. The discussion at In Sight gets into pressures of high school sports, parents' expectations... it's something anyone who's been through school, or who has kids, can relate to. Go take a look!  

I don't know anything about the coach or her team, but I do think:

- It's great to open a dialogue about how we expect our kids to be treated.  I think that's what Bob Luckey meant to do, and I commend him.  

- I would not want any adult to put their hands on my kid like that, even if they were on a high-pressure, high-performing team.  

- Adults who work with children have a responsibility to hold themselves, each day and each minute, to the highest behavior standards they can manage.

- Everyone makes mistakes, and mistakes vary in degrees of seriousness.  

- A pattern of mistakes is a problem.   

I just saw in the paper (how ironic that I'm calling it a "paper" and I read it online) that the coach is suspended for the rest of the season but can return in 2013.  Wow.  

I don't know if that would have happened if the photos hadn't been published.  That might upset some people, but I think it was definitely right to publish the photos.  The school system investigated, and this is what they decided.  I think they were lucky to have gotten the chance to make sure their students are treated in an appropriate way.  I think it's great they are giving the coach a second chance, too.  That seems very fair. 

What's interesting is that the incident took place on Friday May 25 and the photos weren't posted until Wednesday May 30. I wonder if there was hesitation over the publication, or if, like me, the photobloggers are usually too busy to sit down and blog!