Don’t you think athletic coaches at the K-12 level would be the perfect people to address bullying by their players, I would but apparently others do not?

A volunteer football coach of 4th through 6th graders dealt with a player of his who was bullying by having him run some laps around the football field.  This is a very typical punishment that coaches use to deal with players who have done something the coach feels deserves that punishment.

Well apparently in these days of helicopter parents and PC school administrations that is a problem.

The Washington Post is reporting about a volunteer coach in Durham Connecticut who had spoken to the entire team about bullying and how he would not tolerate it.  After that speech he was told that one of the players was still bullying other players on the team, the coach asked the boy about it and he denied it.  In keeping with his warning to the entire team that he would not tolerate bullying he made the player run a few laps around the field.  He even complimented the boy for taking his punishment without complaining about it.

Well very soon after that event the board of the football association unanimously voted the coach off the team.

The coach told WTNH news:

One of the board members said why did you feel that you were qualified to handle this bullying incident? I’m like because I’m a father

Who better to deal with bullying then a coach, someone most young boys look up to as an authoritative figure?  To boot, he is a father of two boys (who were on the team) so I am sure as one who comes from a family of 4 boys that he knows bullying when he sees or hears of it and he more than likely knows how to deal with boys of that age.

A mother of another boy on the team who was not involved in this incident has taken her son off the team stating:

Bullying is okay — that’s the message I got.  That’s why my son is not going to play for them. I want him to be around better role models than that

Well he was around better role models until the football association decided to take the “better” role model off the playing field.

Let’s talk about this today on The Live with Renk Show which airs Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to noon. To let me know your thoughts during the show please call (269) 441-9595.

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