Something’s just a little too pat about the investigation into the football drug scandal at Harrisonburg High School, which can be summarized thusly: Despite at least one and perhaps several crimes being committed under the not-so-watchful eyes of football coaches, the school board, as Wednesday’s News-Record reported, voted not to punish anyone.
If this result seems reasonable and “fair,” take another look at the facts. Three HHS athletes, an affidavit for the case’s search warrant shows, robbed a friend from another school. Investigating this crime led police to execute a search warrant at HHS to probe possible drug use by student athletes. That search, the affidavit says, exposed a player’s selling and distributing pain pills to teammates. The players also say, according to the affidavit, that one HHS coach knew about the robbery and others knew about the drug sales.
The revelations prompted the school board to hire an outside investigator, who determined that coaches kind of knew something, but not really. The report, or at least the sanitized version the school board deigned to release, cleared the coaches and concluded thusly:
“Some members of the coaching staff were aware of rumors and suspicions of drug activity by at least one of the team players.” While coaches “took some steps to investigate … a more sustained and thorough investigation may have led to detection of drug activity” and “it is likely the school division would have learned of the use of pain pills by some other members of the team. …”
“This lack of a coordinated response and failure to use all investigative techniques available to uncover illegal student activity highlights the need for more intensive and comprehensive training of staff.”
The school board added that no coach had “direct knowledge” or witnessed drug activity and that administrators knew zilch.
The report’s prolix locution means coaches knew something was up and fumbled it, and it created the excuse for what the school board did Tuesday night: nothing.
The school board voted 5-1 to keep the coaches, who won’t receive even the mildest reprimand. Only school board member Sallie Strickler had the courage to vote against retaining them because she has “real concerns about the leadership of the football program.”
If this result seems reasonable and “fair,” take another look at the facts. Three HHS athletes, an affidavit for the case’s search warrant shows, robbed a friend from another school. Investigating this crime led police to execute a search warrant at HHS to probe possible drug use by student athletes. That search, the affidavit says, exposed a player’s selling and distributing pain pills to teammates. The players also say, according to the affidavit, that one HHS coach knew about the robbery and others knew about the drug sales.
The revelations prompted the school board to hire an outside investigator, who determined that coaches kind of knew something, but not really. The report, or at least the sanitized version the school board deigned to release, cleared the coaches and concluded thusly:
“Some members of the coaching staff were aware of rumors and suspicions of drug activity by at least one of the team players.” While coaches “took some steps to investigate … a more sustained and thorough investigation may have led to detection of drug activity” and “it is likely the school division would have learned of the use of pain pills by some other members of the team. …”
“This lack of a coordinated response and failure to use all investigative techniques available to uncover illegal student activity highlights the need for more intensive and comprehensive training of staff.”
The school board added that no coach had “direct knowledge” or witnessed drug activity and that administrators knew zilch.
The report’s prolix locution means coaches knew something was up and fumbled it, and it created the excuse for what the school board did Tuesday night: nothing.
The school board voted 5-1 to keep the coaches, who won’t receive even the mildest reprimand. Only school board member Sallie Strickler had the courage to vote against retaining them because she has “real concerns about the leadership of the football program.”
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