[Speed Gibson,
Monday June 11, 2007 at 10:05pm]
Football a la Francais
The start of the 2007 high school football season is several weeks away but already the Osseo school district and the Brooklyn Park police have already surrendered. Rather than confront the problem, Park Center High School will be playing its fall home games starting at 5 pm, not 7 pm.
I live nearby yet it's news to me but apparently some number of hooligans have been causing some trouble there. Whoever they are, if they're not afraid of the police or school authorities, a little daylight isn't going to scare them off either.
Forgive me for being cynical, but I suspect this is mostly about ticket sales. Like Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak and his policing policy based on race, creed, and national origin, ISD 279 also seems to wrestle with its own perceived fine line between public safety and political correctness.
Minneapolis North has been playing their varsity football games even earlier on Friday afternoons for some time now. Perhaps they can make a more persuasive case, being they are located in Rybak's Minneapolis. But this is just as unsettling.
How about working parents that would like to see their children play? Hmmm... the teachers have no problem; they even have time for an early dinner. And they'll get home sooner. Hmmm. But for the many more who work until 4:30 pm, 5:00 pm, or beyond, too bad. You can make away games, just not home games, and all because the authorities are unwilling to crack a couple of heads together.
Parents, you should go on strike until those in charge are forced to do their jobs. You may want to volunteer for some security duty as I do at our school. Just a show of force and watchful eyes is usually enough.
Remember when some ninnies tried to move Halloween into the twilight hours, even skip the candy so they could raise money for the United Nations? We fought that nonsense off to preserve Halloween. Let's preserve Friday Night Lights, too. It's for the children.
I live nearby yet it's news to me but apparently some number of hooligans have been causing some trouble there. Whoever they are, if they're not afraid of the police or school authorities, a little daylight isn't going to scare them off either.
Forgive me for being cynical, but I suspect this is mostly about ticket sales. Like Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak and his policing policy based on race, creed, and national origin, ISD 279 also seems to wrestle with its own perceived fine line between public safety and political correctness.
Minneapolis North has been playing their varsity football games even earlier on Friday afternoons for some time now. Perhaps they can make a more persuasive case, being they are located in Rybak's Minneapolis. But this is just as unsettling.
How about working parents that would like to see their children play? Hmmm... the teachers have no problem; they even have time for an early dinner. And they'll get home sooner. Hmmm. But for the many more who work until 4:30 pm, 5:00 pm, or beyond, too bad. You can make away games, just not home games, and all because the authorities are unwilling to crack a couple of heads together.
Parents, you should go on strike until those in charge are forced to do their jobs. You may want to volunteer for some security duty as I do at our school. Just a show of force and watchful eyes is usually enough.
Remember when some ninnies tried to move Halloween into the twilight hours, even skip the candy so they could raise money for the United Nations? We fought that nonsense off to preserve Halloween. Let's preserve Friday Night Lights, too. It's for the children.