posted by Mike Madison at 4:03 PM /
A Mt. Lebanon High School student allegedly was assaulted by the principal of Upper St. Clair High School. The Upper St. Clair police have closed their investigation -- apparently without interviewing anyone from Mt. Lebanon, and some Upper St. Clair residents have put on their best "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" faces.
Some observations:
Sometimes I'm glad that I pay taxes that pay for the Mt. Lebanon Police Department. This is one of them. This is another.
I suspect and hope that a video of the events at USC will pop up on YouTube.
Mt. Lebanon School District administrators should proceed with caution before claiming the high ground here. Last year the District all but ignored student complaints over the "Top 25" list. Just as some quick and quiet intervention by the District could have avoided ugly national publicity and a lawsuit then, some humility and class on the part of USC may avoid what the family of Joe Rodella -- victim of the alleged assault -- plans next. How about starting with: "It is inexcusable and a tragedy that a visiting student got assaulted while attending a basketball game at our high school. Upper St. Clair will do everything in its power to identify and discipline the perpetrators and to ensure that everyone attending sporting events at our high school, and especially those visiting from other towns, is treated courteously." Instead, we hear blame-the-victim. If a kid runs onto the court after the game and ignores warnings not to, uniformed security should escort him from the building. If a mass of kids runs onto the court and ignores warnings not to, the school should rethink its security approach. As the man once said, "It's time to get a bigger boat."
For these and related reasons, it's probably a good thing that Mt. Lebanon is planning to increase security when USC visits the Lebo gym, because the game is likely otherwise to turn into a suburban version of Sharks and Jets. That's both sad and bizarre. Can't we all just get along? The one and only time I attended a Lebo home basketball game, about three years ago, the Lebo team ran onto the court and went through pre-game warmups while the audience was treated to ear-splitting, building-shaking hip hop music. I don't have anything against rap or hip hop (aside from the obvious incongruity of playing it to stoke suburban audiences), but has anyone given a thought to conducting warm ups to the applause of the fans -- and to nothing else?
Some observations:
Sometimes I'm glad that I pay taxes that pay for the Mt. Lebanon Police Department. This is one of them. This is another.
I suspect and hope that a video of the events at USC will pop up on YouTube.
Mt. Lebanon School District administrators should proceed with caution before claiming the high ground here. Last year the District all but ignored student complaints over the "Top 25" list. Just as some quick and quiet intervention by the District could have avoided ugly national publicity and a lawsuit then, some humility and class on the part of USC may avoid what the family of Joe Rodella -- victim of the alleged assault -- plans next. How about starting with: "It is inexcusable and a tragedy that a visiting student got assaulted while attending a basketball game at our high school. Upper St. Clair will do everything in its power to identify and discipline the perpetrators and to ensure that everyone attending sporting events at our high school, and especially those visiting from other towns, is treated courteously." Instead, we hear blame-the-victim. If a kid runs onto the court after the game and ignores warnings not to, uniformed security should escort him from the building. If a mass of kids runs onto the court and ignores warnings not to, the school should rethink its security approach. As the man once said, "It's time to get a bigger boat."
For these and related reasons, it's probably a good thing that Mt. Lebanon is planning to increase security when USC visits the Lebo gym, because the game is likely otherwise to turn into a suburban version of Sharks and Jets. That's both sad and bizarre. Can't we all just get along? The one and only time I attended a Lebo home basketball game, about three years ago, the Lebo team ran onto the court and went through pre-game warmups while the audience was treated to ear-splitting, building-shaking hip hop music. I don't have anything against rap or hip hop (aside from the obvious incongruity of playing it to stoke suburban audiences), but has anyone given a thought to conducting warm ups to the applause of the fans -- and to nothing else?
Labels: high school, police
25 Comments:
Had the students followed the request by the home court this whole affair wouldn't have happened.
This incident was brewing, the Lebo football team was upset by USC's WPIAL win, the Lebo school paper agitated the incident with the mascot article, Lebo kids were looking for a fight and from what I've heard the Lebo coaches made a small effort to ask our kids to comply with USC's request to remain off the court. Why should any district have to add security expense for what should be a fun event.
USC and Lebo aren't the Hill District... where you expect nonsense like this-- our students should know what is right and wrong.
I find it hard to believe that an administrator singled out Rodella to dish out some hurt over his team's loss. Could it possibly be that he led the Lebo charge, swore or tried to evade restraint or made some other move to agitate the administrator?
Come on- Rodella's a big strong boy, racked up some great yardage as a varsity football player. He was where he was told not to be, grow up, quit crying, and accept responsibilty for your actions.
This self-centered affair makes Lebo and USC once again -laughable!
There is every reason to believe that students in the Hill District know right from wrong no less than students in Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair.
Mike Madison--
Do you really believe that?
Talk to any teacher from the city schools, they expect an incidents- from fights, to gun or knife threats, to assualt on teachers.
City students may know right from wrong, but that doesn't mean they act accordingly.
If I remember correctly city school football games moved from Fridays nights to Saturday afternoons to quell escalting violence and civil disobedience many years ago.
Regardless-- does that excuse any student from behavior that defies authority and the repercussions of such actions?
Absolutely I believe it. Assuming that suburban kids don't misbehave in ugly ways -- and assuming that urban kids are much more prone to do so -- leads to dangerous complacency in both communities. "It can't happen here" is no way to teach or protect kids.
Look, kids run onto courts to celebrate. They run onto football fields to celebrate. Running out there is dangerous, it breaks the rules, and it ignores announcements. If a kid gets thrown out of the stadium for that, that's just fine. Should a kid get beat up by school officials? Occasionally, in recent years, kids running onto football fields have been paralyzed or even killed by goal posts being torn down by the fans. Do we react to those tragedies by saying that these kids got what they deserved for breaking the rules? I like to think that I have more compassion than that. Not all "repercussions" are equivalent.
The principal of USC has been accused of assaulting a student. Unless the principal was acting in self-defense, I can't imagine a plausible justification for that. No community or school district in the country should tolerate administrators or teachers assaulting kids.
New anonymous here. I think we can all agree that we are blessed that the big issue is kids running on a court (big deal) compared with kids with guns (Hill district)
Mike-- I question several of your assumptions. First, from what I've heard Rodella wasn't beat up! Had he suffered bruises, abrasions etc. then maybe I'd agree with you.
He's a fairly strong atheletic kid, supported by his ability to break tackles and hits on the football field. If he was a 90lb. geek I might ? the administrator's response, but is it just possible that Rodella tried to put some moves on the administrator thus escalating his response.
As for goal post-- my god-- thats why stadiums try to keep people off the fields. What do we do build them out of steel I-beams or maybe not put up any at.
I know, we can pay for an escort for each fan to make sure they don't engage in any unsafe activity.
Sure its unfortunate, very sad if someone gets hurt but when does individual reponsibilty begin.
Are you stating if we buy our kid a car that goes 120mph and they get killed taking a 35mph curve at 90- we attack the car, manufacturer, PennDOT, or parents?
Back to this incident, I got wind that there was trouble brewing and considered not letting my kid go. Before they left, they knew I wouldn't accept any excuses should they get in trouble.
So far, fortunately, I haven't heard that they were involved, but if it does come out they were -- I'm not going to USC for an apology unless they got the crap beat out of them by a teacher, admin or police officer.
His explanation of the incident better have a good reason for not following the rules!!!!
Why does it matter whether Joe Rodella (or any student) is strong enough to take a beating? Legally speaking, "assault" means that he was touched involuntarily. If the USC principal escorted him from the building, I have no problem. If the USC principal was defending himself from Joe's fists and feet, then the principal should be able to do that.
It's important to separate the "personal responsibility" argument from the "proportionate response" question. Should the kids have listened and stayed off the court? Absolutely. Should he be disciplined for that -- by the school, or his parents? I don't quarrel with that. Should a school district official allegedly have slammed a student to the ground and put a knee on his chest? That's a separate question. If that happened, and unless the student were actually endangering the official, then there's no excuse.
Mike--
I agree no kid should have to take a beating... absolutely, positively whether they weigh 90 or 300 lbs. The difference is what does it take to restrain a kid and what constitutes a beating.
I'd imagine the USC admin. could easily redirect or restrain a 90lb kid - and impede his progress without escalating to physical violence. A 190-200 lb. running back is another story.
I also take exception to the term "beating." Was Rodella really beaten?
Whether he was beaten or not-- if evidence surfaces that the admin. or even a police officer walked up to Rodella after he was on the court and blindsided him or made no verbal effort to direct him to get off I'd agree that might be assault. If he grabbed his arm suggested exiting and Rodella tried to wrestle away- that's another matter.
My question becomes... did the administrator have the authority to restrain or grab the kid. I think so... he has the right- no obligation for "everyone's safety" to try and hold them back or remove them. They did purportedly request numerous times for the kids to stay off the court and were ignored.
What is admin supposed to do... shrug his shoulders and walk away.
Would we then be castigating the admin for not taking action to subdue if an innocent child or elderly grandparent had been injured in the melee?
The USC findings seem to agree with my conjecture and I tend to support the authorities before someone that intiated the misconduct.
USC did anticipate problems and had three officers present... should they have had 50, 100, 200?
speaking as a recent graduate of schenley high, many of whose classmates were from the hill district and other "undesirable" places where one would "expect things like this", i feel 'anonymous' needs to be a little less naive. i attended a 2005 USC-schenley basketball game at which occurred the worst behavior by a student body i have ever witnessed, including the yelling of racial slurs directed at the team from USC's fan section. no attempt was made by any authority to stop this. while fights/other violence may indeed be more common in the city vs. the suburbs, thuglike and ridiculous behavior is ubiquitous.
Kate- are you saying that because this behavior doesn't equate to the levels of violence in city schools we should brush it aside and crucify an adminstrator for attempting to stop it?
I'm sorry if it was unclear, but if anything i'm emphasizing the opposite! A comment was made above that incidents like this shouldn't happen in Lebo, but rather in the city, someplace like the Hill. I took issue simply because anything we city kids do to each other is equalled if not exceeded by the behavior of students at places like USC and Lebo. I'm not sure how I feel about this incident specifically (other than that both sides seem to be at fault) but a) acts of stupidity seem to be par for the course at games involving one or both of these teams, and b) I don't think suburban students should be allowed to get away with behavior that at a city game would get them dispersed violently by police. that's all!
Kate--
I agree with you. Knowing teachers/administrators in the city schools in Pgh and Philly, I'm told threaten lawsuits by parents for incidents such as this is fairly common and the reasoning behind my poor example.
Bad behavior by students in either USC or Lebo, or the city is inexcusable, racial slurs and defiant behavior is indefensible anywhere.
Perhaps I'm too old, but when I was in H.S. I and my parents were be too embarassed to take this incident to the media. My worry would've been explaining to the folks my actions that drove the authority to react that way.
The fact that Rodella, jumped up demanding the admins. name, suggest to me that he wasn't beaten.
Anon --
Maybe our backgrounds explain part of our different reactions. I'm younger (I'm guessing on that -- though I'm probably older than Kate), and I went to a high school where "friendly" punching of kids by teachers was the norm. (My sophomore classmates, for example, learned personally from a teacher about the meaning of the word "defenestration.") I tend to question alleged abuses of authority, and I tend not to assume that "authority" is automatically in the right. As a lawyer, I've seen authority abused all too often. So, the fact that Joe Rodella and his family are asking for the admin's name suggests, to me, that a line was indeed crossed here, by the admin as well as by Joe R. and other Lebo students.
Mike
Ah, so the community should incur the expense of added police security because kids (on the cusp of adulthood) can't follow instructions or process directions for their and others safety.
Maybe we should bar everyone from sporting events except the atheletes/coaches/officials so that events like this don't happen.
Yes, there are abuses by bad authorities and shouldn't be allowed. But I find it hard to believe not a single authority (school board, police, press, public) called for further investigation of the incident. Your telling me the whole USC community accepts or condones assualts on kids.
Just read the Almanac accounting of the incident. Bypassing Rodella's complaint, it comes out that Lebo were kids were spitting on USC kids. How crude, stupid, disgusting, immature, vile, ignorant is that! We as a community should be ashamed!
ok this is something about the article about Rivalry in the bleachers...FIrst of all I don't understand why so many people are blaming mount lebanon for there "insulting" chants at bball games..I mean come on kids are kids. I have been to many lebo games this year and parents are laughing at the chants. Some USC basketball players dad said the Lebo students came looking for trouble. My god grow up. We all know we made up chants when we were there age and loved it. That is besides the point here. The dad was probably mad because the students criticized two players on the USC team. One for Smoking and the other for getting citations. Now i know if i were a parent of those two boys i would be embarrased, but USCs student section is also the section that brings dollar bills to the game and waves them at lesser quality communities and says," Its ok..its alright..you will work for us someday." Now how do you think the parents of that community feel? I sure would feel bad. So I dont want to hear this stuff o Lebo kids are bad because of there chants, USC does the samething..sorry lebo has fianlly proved to USC that there basketball team is so much better than them. Its ok go cry on your State champ blanket.
I'm going to go out on a limb here with a suggestion.
Joe Rodella Jr. is a good kid, my son has certainly looked up to him as a JV player. His dad too, as a board member has certainly put a lot of time and effort into trying to make Lebo a better place with little or no reward.
This might be asking too much of them, but I think it might be the high road and show tremendous maturity for Joe Jr., to admit that his action (and the other Lebo student's), disregarded instuctions, went beyond youthful celebration, and could have resulted in injuries to themselves and others. The USC's principal's action were wrong too, but what an example it would set for the underclassmen.
It might go a long way toward putting the fun back into thses rivalries and reduce the nonsense?
Just a thought.
I'm weighing in as a parent of 3 Mt. Lebanon students, 2 of whom are at the high school.
On the subject of the basketball game, let's uncouple the Action from the Reaction.
Action: After repeated calls to exit in a normal, respectful fashion, students chose not to. They stormed the opposing team's court. This is undisputed. A handful (if you extend the definition of handful to 50+) of students willfully disobeyed requests and ignored common courtesy to storm the court. Again, this is undisputed.
Reaction: Security measures were effected. Personnel attempted to herd ill-behaved students out the door. Disputed: Whether an administrator "assaulted" a student. It's a he said - she said situation. When and if clear evidence emerges, I'll join the accusers. Until that time, the USC Superintendent is innocent until proven guilty.
As a Mt. Lebanon parent and resident, my concern is that sufficient consequences are delayed or not administered when our students misbehave, particularly publicly. It's natural for kids to make mistakes, but we need to respond so they can learn from their mistakes. Examples need to be made. We are sending the wrong message to our youth when we ignore this sort of behavior or respond with more police, dogs and lawsuits.
I think the district should bar the student section at games until students prove they know how to behave. Privileges are for the deserving. This is a basic tenet of good parenting - prove that you are responsible enough to handle the privilege.
In my mind the deterioration of student behavior at Mt. Lebanon over the past few years is a direct result of the revolving door administration.
Do you know about the disgraceful display our students made at the "Putting Others First" presentation? Embarrasing. My HS students came home mortified by their peers' behavior.
The leadership(?) of our district needs to define behavior boundaries, assert appropriate authority and enact consequences in a timely fashion. We should be able to dismiss the dogs, police and lawsuits. Those measures are proof that we can't manage our own children. Appalling.
Anon 4:59
Agree whole-heartedly!
See my comment at "MTLSD to Address Teen Social Problems at this blog.
I think this topic is far more important than building a new high school!
Anonymous 8:29 - I wrote the somewhat lengthy post/diatribe about ineffective administration above.
I read your post about the "Putting Others First" presentation and agree that the topic of our teens' deteriorating behavior is far more important than building a new school.
I sent a letter on Friday to all the HS Principals, the Superintendent and the School Board. In addition to my 2 teens, I have a child in elementary school - I want some ACTION on this topic.
-Anonymous Mom of 3
Anon Mom of 3
Did you get any response from the board, admin?
Perhaps when they convened another visioning session on the high school we need to be there to speak up that there are more important issues in education than new buildings.
No, haven't heard anything yet, but it's too early anyway. I figure my mail is not as critical as other correspondence they may have received today (yesterday?). My experience in dealing with the district is I'll hear within 7-10 days after I write. Anonymous Mom of 3
Everybody needs to just shut up. Listen, this was a rivalry game. Kids will be kids. I can say that the Pincipal of USC did tackle Rodella to the ground and knee him in the face. Regardless it's inexcusable. Okay. Yeah maybe the students were told not to storm the court, but once again it is a rivalry game and ask the USC students, they weren't angry with what the kids from Lebo did. They understood the hype of the game. No saying that this is city like behavior isn't right. That's what gives places like Mt. Lebanon and USC a bad name. Maybe the city kids do fight and all but so do must suburban schools this close in proximety. The fact that they admin. of USC told Mt. Lebanon students to stay of the floor was stupid. Yeah they shouldn't have done it, but tell me do your kids listen to every thing you tell them not to do. I don't think so. I am a resident of Mt. Lebanon and my kids don't listen to everything we tell them. This is a group of kids between 14-18 the rebelious stage in their lives. If they don't listen to their parents, do you really think they are going to listen to an adult they dont know at another school who has no power over them. I DO NOT THINK SO. USC should have handled the situation better by haveing more than 3 cops there and one of which was a woman who i don't think could hold back some of the offensive linemen in the section. If schools are worried about getting sued because someone gets hurt they should through all liability out the window. Schools teach the kids to read, write, do math, and science, what happens after school hours is the students problem. And police are worried about people getting trampled and hurt. I say people are only going to becaome more hurt if your tackle kids because other kids will fall over them and cause a chain reaction. Let them storm the court. They aren't looking for a fight, they want to celebrate a good victory with their team.
Although some of these posts contain the opinions of some whose logic I might question, the above post is so ridiculous that I must conclude that it was written by either an immature child or a childish and incapable parent.
I counted three (3) rationalizations showing why it is okay for people who are excited to disobey the rules:
Excuse/Rationalization # 1
"YEAH maybe the students were told not to storm the court, BUT once again it is a rivalry game and ask the USC students, they weren't angry with what the kids from Lebo did."
I don't rely on the opinion of children where safety and order are concerned; they are unable to correctly judge such things.
Excuse/Rationalization # 2
"Maybe the city kids do fight and all BUT so do must suburban schools this close in proximety. "
Fighting, when not do defend oneself or one who is defenseless, is wrong, no matter how many suburban schools do it.
Excuse/Rationalization # 3
"Yeah they shouldn't have done it, BUT tell me do your kids listen to every thing you tell them not to do."
My kids obey the rules. Especially the ones that I feel are important enough to repeat (although I don't own a PA system). They certainly obey the rules when they go somewhere else. They know better than to embarrass me (or their school) by being an impolite guest.
Yeah, But. Yeah, But. Yeah, But.
Evidence that this post was written by a child # 1:
"Everybody needs to just shut up"
Please...
Evidence that this post was written by a child # 2
"If they don't listen to their parents, do you really think they are going to listen to an adult they dont know at another school who has no power over them"
Again, children should be even MORE respectful of adults in non-home settings. They represent their schools and families and should not give a bad impression.
Evidence that this post was written by a child # 3
"...ask the USC students, they weren't angry with what the kids from Lebo did."
No one cares if the USC students were offended. This is not about the kiddies' feelings. It's about behaving like a responsible individual.
Evidence that this post was written by a child # 4
"Schools teach the kids to read, write, do math, and science, what happens after school hours is the students problem."
In this case, the students, who refused to control themselves, were EVERYBODY's problem. Again, children cannot be left to govern themselves. They are unable.
...3 cops there and one of which was a woman who i don't think could hold back some of the offensive linemen in the section...
May she would have been required to knock them down to stop them......
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