Wash your face[book]

[Rob Graff]

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/13549646.html

QUote from the article:

Danny O'Leary, a senior who plays lacrosse, said his dean displayed four Facebook photos of O'Leary holding drinks and told him he was in "a bit of trouble." One photo shows him holding a can of Coors beer, another a shot of rum, he said. In yet another, O'Leary is pictured holding his friend's 40-ounce container of beer.

"I wasn't drinking that night," O'Leary said. But that apparently doesn't matter. "I was told each picture was equal to a two-game suspension,'' he said.

O'Leary said he intends to meet with the director of student activities today to discuss the suspensions. He said he will point out that two of the photos were taken two years ago, before he joined the lacrosse team and signed a pledge not to drink.

End Quote.

Beyond the point that all of this behavior is against the LAW, don't compound your violation of the LAW by posting evidence against yourself in public.

p.s. Some clarification for those who dont' read the article - this problem arose at Eden Prairie High School - apparently someone (speculation is a student) handed dean a CD with facebook pictures of 100 people drinking/or with alcohol and all were underage, as all are in HS. This is NOT a story about the UMD lacrosse team, or any other UMLL team.

[LaxTV_Admin]

Guys, can't stress this enough. I don't think I need to remind anyone of what happened to Marquette and how much it got compounded by the existence of the internet.

Be mindful of your right to privacy and right to not incriminate yourself. I feel like an old geezer saying this, I know at 26, but some guys who mean a great deal to me missed out on playing their senior year because of things like this. It stinks, no way around it.

[laxfan25]

Good advice! Don't post pictures that you wouldn't want your mom to see. It's amazing how little thinking goes into some of these things.

We had an incident in my well-to-do suburb last year where a group of HS kids had posted pictures of themselves holding adult beverages (which they never consumed, of course). Said pictures made their way to the administration and the students were barred from attending the upcoming prom.
Their parents of course then did the right thing to punish this behavior. They rented the ballroom at the swanky hotel in town and had a counter prom. That'll show 'em!

[Pinball]

Is there some legal argument that the students would have over being suspended with these pictures because there is no definitive proof that they drank the alcohol. (im not dumb i know they did, and i know i did)

now i just need to find that pic of rob graff drinking at that party in philly when he was a freshman...........................

It is amazing what people will put on their facebook pages (myself included!!) and the pictures people post.

[Zeuslax]

Their parents of course then did the right thing to punish this behavior. They rented the ballroom at the swanky hotel in town and had a counter prom. That'll show 'em!

Perfect!

We've probably all read about people not getting jobs or opportunities due to blogs or forum postings. Even if the material found aren't unethical or illegal, political bias can get in the way or opinions can be formed as a result of the "tone" posted.

[LaxRef]

I went to a Quaker high school. The policy at our school was that if you were with people doing something wrong you were just as guilty as they were, even if you weren't doing it yourself, because you were condoning the behavior by being there. So, you're in a room with people drinking or smoking but not doing it yourself, you're just as busted as they are.

Personally, I don't think it matters whether the kids actually drank the alcohol; underage possession of alcohol is still illegal, isn't it?

I do have an issue with them being punished for violating the pledge for behavior that took place before signing the pledge. Do they have to pledge that they never did anything wrong in the past? If not, I think they need to establish a time frame.

The bottom line, though, is you have to be mentally deficient to allow yourself to be photographed doing something illegal.

[StrykerFSU]

What if someone else posts your picture?

This generation can expect no right to privacy when someone can post your picture without your knowledge. Obviously this was a high school situation but this stuff happens in college, ehem grad school, as well. I'm not sure what the answer is...just be careful out there.

[Rob Graff]

now i just need to find that pic of rob graff drinking at that party in philly when he was a freshman...........................
.

I can categorically state that no such pictures exst of me in Philly as a freshman. I went to college in Cambridge, and furthermore, my team did not go to UPenn for a game until I was a Soph.

[horn17]

Is there some legal argument that the students would have over being suspended with these pictures because there is no definitive proof that they drank the alcohol. (im not dumb i know they did, and i know i did)

Unfortunately not......its up to the high school's discrection on this one....EP had to do something, espically with it being the lead on channel 9 news last night - if they rolled there eyes again to this behavior, heads would have certainly rolled.....

I know I publicly sent information to my AD today to make an announcement on these type of issues --- because knowing what happens next, and copy cats, I dont want to see anyone else lose a season because someone at EP was mad, and they decided to go after someone else's team to make a point....

Oh yeah, plus with super dandy technology and software we have available, I could pretty much scan any facebook group and locate incriminating stuff against you Fleck.....

[LaxRef]

What if someone else posts your picture?

This generation can expect no right to privacy when someone can post your picture without your knowledge. Obviously this was a high school situation but this stuff happens in college, ehem grad school, as well. I'm not sure what the answer is...just be careful out there.

Well, the answer is probably to not do things that you'll get into trouble for if people find out. You're right, if you're at a party and you're underage, someone can take your picture and post it without permission. I don't think there's an expectation of privacy there (but I'm not a lawyer, so I defer to anyone who is).

[Dulax Trainer]

Working in a highschool, I can honestly say that schools can impose rules and regulations of drinking or tobacco violations that during the calandar school year (summer included), they can reprimand a student if they violate the highschool league of rules, and rules imposed by the school (student handbook). Technically if a student plays in any type of sport during their highschool career, until they leave the sport, they cannot violate drinking or smoking rules.

I've seen it happen when students are not in season, they drink or smoke and get caught, but they will reprimand you for when your season does roll around. Ie ... football player gets caught drinking, in the spring, will then face the game suspension the following season in the fall.

[KevinBice]

We had an incident last year at Simley HS where two of my players had to sit out the first couple games because of alcohol violations over 8 months earlier.
I think the discrepancy comes when athletes see themselves as such only in-season. I've been trying to stress to my players that even if lacrosse is only a spring sport, they need to behave as athletes year-round - not just staying in shape, but holding themselves to a higher standard.

My major concern comes with the fact that even if you're at a party and aren't drinking, you get in just as much trouble. My sister was kicked off prom court this year for being caught at a party where she was the designated driver for her friends. The nature of the beast is that kids are going to drink no matter what you do to stop it. Keeping this in mind, wouldn't it make more sense to be safe about it and promote having sober friends around to help out? I know part of the lure of drinking in high school was that if all your friends drank and you didn't, then you were S.O.L. if they went to a party, because the possible consequences of going weren't worth it.

[BigheadTodd]

I went to a Quaker high school. The policy at our school was that if you were with people doing something wrong you were just as guilty as they were, even if you weren't doing it yourself, because you were condoning the behavior by being there. So, you're in a room with people drinking or smoking but not doing it yourself, you're just as busted as they are.

Personally, I don't think it matters whether the kids actually drank the alcohol; underage possession of alcohol is still illegal, isn't it?

I do have an issue with them being punished for violating the pledge for behavior that took place before signing the pledge. Do they have to pledge that they never did anything wrong in the past? If not, I think they need to establish a time frame.

The bottom line, though, is you have to be mentally deficient to allow yourself to be photographed doing something illegal.

Laxref, where did you go to high school? I assumed you went to Conard or Hall.

[LaxRef]

Laxref, where did you go to high school? I assumed you went to Conard or Hall.

George School, in Newtown, PA. And if I hadn't gone there, I doubt I'd be a lacrosse official now, since the local public HS didn't have lacrosse back then (although they do now).

What made you think I was from Connecticut?

[laxfan25]

Todd, were you confusing LaxRef and Laxfan25 with the Husky logo - you old-time Whaler fan??

William Henry Hall High School - Class of 1971. the first from the "new" Hall!

Conard sux. 44-20!!