The story may be unfolding far away from these parts, but the saga of a school system more intent on winning on Friday nights is a tale that needs no repeating elsewhere.There is a lesson to be learned, but the school board in Hoover, Ala., has yet to absorb it. Instead, its members are trying desperately to find a way around it, much as an unprepared student does when he peeks at a classmate’s answers on a test.
In Hoover, scandal is engulfing the system. Grade changes, playing ineligible football players, affairs, secret families — they are allegations that are not going away. And head football coach Rush Propst is the target of them.
Yet rather than take any action to assuage the public’s fear that the wrong lessons are being taught in the Hoover School System, the school board is taking a page from Propst’s playbook and doing an end around the inevitable.
After all, Hoover is Number 2 in the state, and relieving him of duty while an investigation is being conducted — like would have happened to most other education employees — just might jeopardize the season. So, they’ll take the delay of game penalty and go for it anyway.
Despite pressure from the public and the city council, the school board is postponing any action against Propst until the coincidental end of football season.
Hoover High’s not the only school in this state that puts too high a priority on winning and makes decisions accordingly. But it is the one caught in the glare of Friday night lights right now.
Others around the state and here at home would do well to learn from this sad commentary on public education and rethink the priorities.
