HIGH SCHOOL "STUDENT ATHLETES"

In 1954, when I obtained my masters degree, I was desperate for work. Married only a few months, both of us flat broke and no car to get around in, I took the first job I was offered. It was as a general science and social studies teacher at newly opened South Oak Cliff High School (SOC) in Dallas. Most of the students came from upper-middle class families but the school also served the Lisbon area of Dallas, a tough run-down white neighborhood known for its young thugs.

Ben Matthews, the principal at the time, wanted a teacher to handle those hoodlums and, because of my police background, he thought I would fit that bill. Let me just say that my three years at SOC with "my thugs" were a personally rewarding experience.

While I was at SOC, the Dallas Independent School Distric was still segregated and thus SOC was an all-white public school. Between 1965 and 1970, the student body was transformed from almost 100 percent white to almost 100 percent black. One of its famous alumni is former NBA star player Dennis Rodman, he of orange or green dyed hair fame.

So what does that have to do with this blog? As you know, I have previously blogged about the myth of "student athletes" at our colleges and universities. I've long suspected that the myth also applied to some of our nation's public high schools. The other day I read a newspaper article about "caged fights" being staged at good old SOC. The article also mentioned that the school had previously been involved in a grading scandal involving the eligibility of its basketball players.

Here is how Wikipedia called attention to the "caged fights," the grading scandal and the principal's personal misconduct:

A 2008 investigation within the Dallas school district's Office of Professional Responsibility found that then-principal Donald Moten as well as other school officials staged cage fights among troubled students, making them fight in a steel utility cage inside a boys locker room. The investigation showed that Moten and other employees "knew of the practice, allowed it to go on for a time, and failed to report it."

South Oak Cliff High was stripped of its 2005 and 2006 state basketball championships after investigators determined Moten had coerced teachers into changing athletes' grades. Forfeiture of its 2007 state title is still under consideration.

District reports also confirmed unauthorized pep rally fundraisers that Moten used to fund personal gambling trips. Moten had a previous checkered work history at the Dallas Police Department – one that included staging his own kidnapping and the fatal shooting of an elderly crime-watch volunteer. Moten was moved from South Oak Cliff High to Jackson Elementary School in 2006, and resigned from the district in 2008.

I am sure there are many other high schools which jack up the grades of athletes so that they will remain eligible to play basketball, football or whatever. They just haven't been caught. And when these semi-literates receive their college athletic scholarships, they are unprepared for a college or university curriculum and unable to pass the required English, math and science courses.

The colleges then enroll their "student athletes" in dozens of one-hour credit physical education activity courses - basket weaving, ping pong, badminton, bowling, billiards, hiking, croquet, masturbating, etc. - for which they are given "A"s without having to attend any classes. They accumulate enough of those phony "A"s to cancel out the "F"s they get in English, Math, Biology, etc., thereby maintaining their NCAA eligibilty.

The sad truth, especially for African-Americans, is that most of those football and basketball players never graduate and only a select few make it into the pros. That means the overwhelming majority of "student athletes" have merely been exploited by their schools. When their playing days are over and their dreams of a pro career have evaporated, all they are left with are unmarketable memories of games won and lost, teammates, lots of parties and loads of sex.