Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

When Coach Locksley decided to slam his fist into another coach's face, he was not exercising a god-given freedom. He was exhibiting uncontrolled anger. He was exhibiting an over-the-top ego too. And there are mixed emotions about what should be done about it, although the decision has already been made and a 10-day suspension is underway.

As I have followed this debacle, I had no idea that Coach Locksley has been the head football coach at UNM for LESS than a year. He's a newbie, in some ways. He's basically - or should be - on probation in his new position.  A probationary time is usually used to determine any unacceptable traits or weaknesses in performance that would not typically show up in a standard interview/background check process. It's a time to watch someone "in action." Locksley certainly gave us that! Action seems to be one of his communication tools, violent action. Where is common sense in this issue? What would happen if a student decided to slam their fist into another student, OR, even better, into the assistant coach's face? Something tells me they would receive more than a 10-day suspension. Where are the strong leaders at UNM? Isn't there anyone who understands that unacceptable behavior is exactly that - unacceptable?

And another example of an absolute lack of leadership: when young - and I mean YOUNG (6 years old) - Zacharie Christie took his prized new camping tool to school, he was summarily suspended for 45 days (yes, I said FORTY_FIVE days) for bringing a weapon to school (the fork, spoon, KNIFE camp set was deemed dangerous by the over-reactive powers that be). 

I have watched this with stunned amazement. As a former two-term (that would be more years than Zacharie is old) school board trustee in a school district that also had a Zero Tolerance Policy for weapons, fighting  (and drugs) and I have wondered where common sense has gone.

Both of these recent cases involving a coach and a kid show that school leadership often doesn't have any common sense, and evidently also does not have any real understanding of the policies in place, and WHY they are there, when it comes to appropriate discipline of students and staff.

If they had either common sense or an understanding of the philospophy behind a policy, Coach Locksley would be dealing with more than a 10-day suspension including serious discussion about why hitting people is not acceptable, will not be tolerated, and cannot be overlooked. (Yes, I know he is going to participate in an anger management class - whoopty-do)

And in the case of young Zacharie, he should not have missed more than a day of school, and that would be the day the 'knife' was discovered, the time it took to call his parents and gather in the principal's office to explain to Zacharie in a caring but serious way exactly why knives - in any form - should not be brought to school. Something tells me he would get it.

Zacharie is 6, he has an excuse.

Coach Locksley? Something tells me he will never get it. There is no excuse for his behavior. After all, even Zacharie at age 6 knows better than to hit someone at school.

That's one of the things they teach us in kindergarten; in spite of what they are teaching in higher ed.