Roslyn School Amends Controversial Athletics Vacation Policy

Adedamola Agboola

A controversial Roslyn School athletics policy aimed at enforcing student athlete practice and game attendance was amended by the Board of Trustees last Thursday to penalize an infraction with suspension rather than dismissal from the team.

Roslyn Superintendent Gerard Dempsey said some parents expressed concern that the rule was overly harsh and did not take into consideration legitimate reasons for a student missing a practice or scheduled contest.

“The family said they might have a celebration, funeral or a family gathering somewhere else or even a family vacation,” Dempsey said. “That is something we looked at.”

Dempsey also said the rule was deterring students from joining varsity teams.

“Some students look at that [dismissal rule] and they don’t join any varsity team in the school,” Dempsey said.

The “Varsity Athlete Vacation Regulation” policy, adopted in 2012, empowered team coaches to dismiss from the team any student who missed a practice or contest during a school vacation period.

Dempsey said the “zero tolerance policy” was put in place because students were skipping games and practices during the vacation season often leaving teams shorthanded.

“We’ve had to cancel games and on several occasions even forfeit games,” Dempsey said. 

He said the policy was to let students know if they were to miss practice during vacation period, there would be strict consequences that will follow. 

The board decided on Thursday to retain a policy to penalize students who miss games or practices but reduce the penalty to  game suspensions, effective July 1.

The change in the rule stipulates that if a student athlete misses the first scheduled practice or contest day during the school vacation period, he or she will be benched for a minimum of two scheduled contests. The discipline will be increased to four scheduled contests should the student be absent at a second practice or contest.

Board Vice president Clifford Saffron expressed concern about how the policy would be implemented.

“I know this lays out the minimum consequences of the missing practices but to what extent is a coach authorized to discipline a student,” Saffron asked. 

Saffron said he doesn’t want a situation where the soccer coach applies one standard and the basketball coach administers another.

“What I’m concerned about is we’re giving a coach the free rein to administer these punishments. I know we’ve had problems in the past,” Saffron said.

Dempsey said the board wants to ensure that all coaches follow the regulation as its written and not for a coach to be harsher or gentler in the treatment of different students.

“We communicate in writing to every coach each year when we get new coaches to make sure they understand the rules,” Dempsey said.

After a dismissal from the team, he said, appeals are not granted to students who have missed the scheduled practice without permission.

Since the implementation of the policy three years ago, school officials said, coaches have been trusted with the responsibility of disciplining their students.

The board agreed to include in the new policy wording that says any discipline of an athlete exceeding the minimum consequence should be determined by the director of athletics in consultation with the coach, administrator and counselors.

Dempsey said the amendment was developed by Assistant Superintendent Allison Brown and the Roslyn Bulldogs Boosters Club.

Efforts to reach Brown and Jenni Rebetti of the Boosters Club were unavailing.

The policy had drawn disagreement between Roslyn parents who wanted more time allocated for family vacations and those who feel student athletes who miss practices and games should be penalized. 

Then Roslyn Superintendent of Schools Dan Brenner said in 2012 that the board’s vote was meant as a temporary compromise as the district continues to seek a more permanent policy.

Brenner said the policy’s strict enforcement was meant to limit the excuses he and Roslyn High School administrators have heard from students trying to circumvent the vacation policy. 

Board of Education President Meryl Waxman Ben-Levy said in 2013 that because of the differences in opinion the entire Roslyn community should be asked re-evaluate the mission of its athletic program and whether it truly values competitive teams. 

“We talked about the community’s values, and we said these are the rules are for our competitive athletic program that we have to take that seriously,” Waxman Ben-Levy said. “But if our community’s values incorporate many other things, then perhaps what we want is not that program. We want an athletic program, just not that athletic program, because there’s something very disingenuous about having both. You can’t be all things to all people.”

The new policy still calls for three days during each vacation period on which no games or practices would be scheduled.

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